Shorts: U.S.

Supreme Court rules against survivors

washington (jta) | The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Holocaust survivors who claimed they had been cheated out of money from the Swiss banks settlement.

On Monday, June 19, the court rejected the claim that survivors in the United States should get more money from the $1.25 billion settlement agreed to in 1998.

The judge overseeing distribution of the money previously ruled that more should go to survivors in the former Soviet Union because they're needier. A federal appeals court agreed with the judge's decision.




Looted painting auctioned off

new york (jta) | A Holocaust-era looted painting that was returned to its heirs was auctioned for $135 million.

The Gustav Klimt painting now will be displayed at the Neue Galerie, a New York museum of German and Austrian art owned by Ronald Lauder.

The 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer was recently returned to Bloch-Bauer's niece, Maria Altmann. Altmann, 90, who lives in Los Angeles, pursued litigation for seven years against Austria to get back the painting, which was first confiscated by Nazis from the Bloch-Bauers, then taken by the state.