Austrian authorities have seized a recently rediscovered painting by Gustav Klimt following a claim from Hungary regarding the artwork's legal status. The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office ordered the confiscation of the 1897 portrait depicting Ghanaian Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona after Hungarian officials questioned the circumstances of its export from their country.

The Wienerroither & Kohlbacher Gallery in Vienna had acquired the painting several years ago from a collector couple who presented it in poor, heavily soiled condition. The estate stamp on the work was barely recognizable at the time, making authentication challenging. The artwork was transported from Hungary to Austria with an export permit, but Hungarian authorities allege that the permit failed to specify that the work was a Klimt painting.

The portrait's complex history spans nearly a century of ownership changes and wartime displacement. After Klimt completed the work in 1897, it likely remained in his possession until being auctioned from his estate in Vienna in 1923. By 1928, the painting was documented as belonging to Ernestine Klein when it was loaned for a Klimt memorial exhibition at the Vienna Secession. However, when Klein and her husband were forced to flee Vienna for Monaco in the late 1930s due to their Jewish heritage, the painting was reportedly moved from their villa in Vienna's Hietzing district to Hungary to prevent it from falling into Nazi hands.

Once in Hungary, the artwork changed hands through various sales before eventually being offered to the Viennese gallery. Hungarian authorities suspect that the seller concealed the painting's attribution to Klimt during the export process, despite the existence of a 2022 analysis by a Hungarian laboratory. Gallery owner Lui Wienerroither defended the export permit's validity, emphasizing that the painting was not definitively attributed to Klimt at the time of export. His colleague, gallerist Ebi Kohlbacher, noted that no one in Hungary was qualified to verify a Klimt attribution, and they had advised the seller to obtain proper export authorization before bringing the work to Austria for expert examination.

The current owner and the heirs of former owner Ernestine Klein have reached an agreement regarding the painting's ownership. Despite being offered for 15 million euros at an art fair in Maastricht, Netherlands, earlier this year, the work remains unsold. The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office has now prohibited the gallery from selling the painting following a request from their Hungarian counterparts. The question of whether this sensational discovery must be returned to Hungary remains unresolved.