German court orders restitution of Nazi looted art

The German Historical Museum in Berlin must return a collection of thousands of rare, handcrafted posters seized more than 70 years ago by the Nazis to the son of the original owner, Germany's federal court said on Friday.

The 4,300 posters valued at 4.3 million euros ($5.66 million) were confiscated by the Nazis from dentist Hans Sachs in 1938 under discriminatory laws that targeted German Jews.

The collection, parts of which have been displayed in the popular Berlin museum for years, will now be returned to the owner's son, Peter Sachs, who lives in the United States.

"These posters were hand-made, not the kind you see today that are reprinted millions of times all over the world. They were made by painters and they are real art," Sachs' lawyer, Matthias Druba, told Reuters.

The collection was feared lost until posters began resurfacing in the communist east of the country and some eventually ended up in the collection of the German Historical Museum after reunification in 1990.

The restitution of Nazi looted art is a sensitive topic in Germany, not least because of the value of many of the works. One of the five Klimt artworks returned to the Bloch-Bauer family a few years ago was sold for $135 million, believed to be the highest price ever paid for a painting.

The amounts of money involved has led to a backlash in recent years, as critics say claimants are interested in profits.

But Druba said that it was the sentimental value of the posters that had prompted this claim.

"For Peter Sachs, this was about reconnecting with his family's history," Druba said, adding that his client's father had to watch the posters being taken away before he fled Germany.

"He even had to help pack the posters onto the truck before he was allowed to leave the country," Druba said.

Sachs now plans to display the works to the public, but was still looking for a location, Druba said.

"The collector was a Berliner and the posters were collected in Berlin. As a Berliner myself, I would be really pleased if they could stay here," he said.