Nazi-looted Klimts unveiled in Los Angeles

Five Gustav Klimt paintings that had been looted from their original owner by the Nazis were unveiled in Los Angeles Tuesday.

Maria Altmann, who recently won a seven-year legal battle for ownership of the works, was on hand at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for a ceremony unveiling the paintings – two of which depict her aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer.

"To see them here is a dream come true," Altmann told the Associated Press.

"Los Angeles has been my hometown for so long, so to have them here is beyond words. I'm going to come here very often and bring friends to see them."

Klimt's two Bloch-Bauer portraits and three landscapes, estimated to be worth about $300 million US, will remain on view at the museum until June 30.

Altmann, now 90, was 21 years old when the Nazis seized power in Austria. She watched in horror as they stole valuables, including the paintings, from her family. Her husband was detained in a concentration camp but the couple eventually escaped and resettled in Los Angeles in the early 1940s.

The stolen paintings were held in a government-run gallery in Vienna.

Altmann long thought her family had lost the artworks forever. Then, in 1998, Austria passed a new law requiring museums to return Nazi looted art.

After a long legal battle with Austrian authorities, who said that Bloch-Bauer had wanted the works to be donated to the gallery, an arbitration court ruled in favour of Altmann and ordered Austria to return the works to her.

A panel in Vienna examining current claims for art looted by the Nazis has recommended that more than 6,000 other artworks also be returned to their original owners, Austrian Culture Minister Elisabeth Gehrer said Wednesday.