HUNGARY’S HUGE CLAIM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17950, 30 November 1932, Page 5

HUNGARY’S HUGE CLAIM

! MILLIONS INVOLVED i i AUSTRIA SUED FOR ART TREASURES VIENNA, Oct. 0. An Austro-Hungarian Court of Arbitration began sitting here to-day on Hungary’s claims from Austria to return Royal art treasures worth several millions of pounds, carried away to the Imperial Court in Vienna since the period of Ludwig the Second until the collapse of .the Monarchy. •Hungary alleges that by the Ueace Treaties of St. Germain and Trianon “the two married .partners, Austria and Hungary were separated, but no decision was made as to how the Empire’s 'property should be. shared out. According to the Hungarian delegation, all .the valuables brought by the Hnpsburgs ffroni Hungary to Austria belong to the former country. They are exhibited in the Vienna museums, at the Court Palace, ami the historic, 'Schonbrunn Castle. The delegation also says that the first Ilapsbiirg Princess. Agnes, in 1301, when after her Royal husband’s death rite retired to a nunnery, carried 300 objects of art belonging to the Crown to Austria. Further, it is alleged by Budapest that since the reign of Ferdinand V all the art treasures found or acquired by Hungary were carried immediately to Vienna, .including the so-called “Attila Treasure” of ; Nngyszentniiklost Finally, the Hungarians claim that the Austrian Embassy in London and its art treasures and tlit* Austrian military barracks partly belong to them. The Hungarian historians have been working hard at the Vienna museums to ascertain which works can iie “historically” claimed for their count rv.

The’ material to be .studied is so enormous that it may lie years before the court can come to a decision.