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Vienna (dpa) An Austrian panel Wednesday recommended returning Edvard Munch's "Summer Night at the Beach" to Marina Fisturlari- Mahler, granddaughter and heir of Alma Mahler, wife of Austrian composer Gustav Mahler.
The panel ruled unanimously that the painting, presently on display at Vienna's Belvedere Gallery is to be returned, despite differing earlier court decisions.
Austria's education ministry, formally in charge of restitution of artwork stolen or confiscated by the Nazi regime, usually follows the panel recommendations.
In 1937 Alma Mahler-Werfel, by then married to Franz Werfel, agreed to loan the painting to the Belvedere Gallery for two years.
In March 1938, after Hitler's annexation of Austria, she had to flee the country with her Jewish husband.
Meanwhile the gallery attempted to buy the painting from her. She refused, but in 1940 Alma's step father, Nazi supporter Carl Moll, sold the painting to the Belvedere in the name of Alma's half-sister.
After the end of World War II in 1945, Alma demanded the painting's return, and in 1953 a commission ruled that her demands were justified.
Several Austrian authorities however challenged the ruling, and as late as 1999 a restitution panel rejected claims by the Mahler family.
Alma's granddaughter, Marina Fistulari-Mahler was "overwhelmed" by the decision, the Austrian press agency reported.
Earlier this year Austria had to return five paintings by Gustav Klimt, also from the Belvedere, to the heirs of Adele Bloch-Bauer, after years of legal dispute.
One of the five, the so-called "Golden Adele" - one of Klimt's undisputed masterpieces - was sold in June to art collector Ronald Lauder for 135 million dollars.
The four remaining paintings were to be auctioned at Christie's in New York on Wednesday. Christies estimated that the four paintings would fetch over 90 million dollars.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
