News Maharishi in the World Today

How We Present
the News







  
Vienna orchestra to return Nazi-looted painting

Reuters    Translate This Article
14 April 2014

VIENNA (Reuters) - The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will return to a French family a valuable painting that was looted by the Nazis and given to the orchestra as a gift in 1940 by a Viennese secret police official.

The heirs of the painting's late owner, Marcel Koch, will receive 'Port-en-Bessin' by neo-Impressionist Paul Signac at a ceremony this year, the orchestra said on Saturday, announcing the latest step to address its past association with Nazism.

About half the Philharmonic's musicians were Nazi party members by 1942, four years after Hitler's annexation of Austria. Thirteen musicians with Jewish origins or relations were driven out of the orchestra and five died in concentration camps.

'We have tried for many years to come to grips with the Vienna Philharmonic's past and face up to our responsibility to make good historical injustices,' orchestra director Clemens Hellsberg said in a statement cited by the Austria Press Agency.

Last year the Philharmonic revoked awards it had made during Hitler's rule to six leading Nazis.

'Restitution of this painting is a special concern of ours,' Hellsberg said. The orchestra said it was only now returning the painting as it only recently tracked down the rightful owner.

Koch was a French resistance figure who founded the Documentation Francaise, a public publishing service.

The orchestra is known for its New Year's Concert, an annual gala of Strauss waltzes broadcast to millions around the world.

It published details of its conduct during the Nazi era last year, calling it a 'dark period' in its history, when the New Year's Concert was invented as a Nazi propaganda instrument.

Austrian Greens party member of parliament Harald Walser, who has long campaigned for more openness by the orchestra, said the Philharmonic should allow an international panel of historians to look into its Nazi-era past.

'The deeper one digs into the Vienna Philharmonic's past, the more 'corpses' emerge from the orchestra pit,' he said.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

© Copyright 2014 Reuters

Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. 'Reuters' and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. For additional information on other Reuters media services please visit reuters.com/newsagency.

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based-Total Knowledge based-programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google)
(Altavista babelfish)

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.


cultural news more

World News | Genetic Engineering | Education | Business | Health News

Search | Global News | Agriculture and Environmental News | Business News
Culture News | Education News | Government News | Health News
Science and Technology News | World Peace | Maharishi Programmes
Press Conferences | Transcendental Meditation | Celebration Calendars | Gifts
News by Country | News in Pictures | What's New | Modem/High Speed | RSS/XML