(JTA) — The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will return a Nazi-looted painting to the heirs of its original Jewish owner.
The painting by the French neo-Impressionist painter Paul Signa, valued at about $500,000, will be returned to relatives of Marcel Koch sometime this month, the orchestra’s spokeswoman said, according to The Associated Press. Koch did not have any children. The painting will be auctioned in Paris, according to the AP.
A Nazi police official gave the orchestra “Port-en-Bessin” in 1940 in exchange for its performances in occupied France.
The orchestra, which purged its Jewish members following Germany’s 1938 annexation of Austria, in recent years has been researching its Nazi past.
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