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300-year-old painting stolen by an American soldier during World War II returned to German museum
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This photo shows the 18th century painting titled "Landscape of Italian Character" by Vienna-born artist Johann Franz Nepomuk Lauterer, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023 in Chicago. After going missing nearly 80 years ago, the "Landscape of Italian Character", a baroque landscape painting was returned to a German museum representative in a brief ceremony at the German Consulate in Chicago, where the pastoral piece of an Italian countryside was on display. - photo by AP Photo/Claire Savage
CHICAGO (AP) — After a stopover in the U.S. that lasted the better part of a century, a baroque landscape painting that went missing during World War II was returned to Germany on Thursday. The FBI handed over the artwork by 18th century Austrian artist Johann Franz Nepomuk Lauterer to a German museum representative in a brief ceremony at the German Consulate in Chicago, where the pastoral piece showing an Italian countryside was on display. Art Recovery International, a company focused on locating and recovering stolen and looted art, tracked down the elusive painting after a person in Chicago reached out last year claiming to possess a “stolen or looted painting” that their uncle brought back to the U.S. after serving in World War II.