Timeline:Painted in 1917 by Egon Schiele and sold to Lea Bondi

Bondi flees the Nazis to London after entrusting the painting

to Nazi party member Friedrich Welz in 1937

WW2 ends and US army confiscates Welz’s art collection

Given to the Belvedere, a public Austrian gallery

Sold to Rudolph Leopold in 1957

Put on exhibition at MoMA in 1997

US v. Portrait of Wally

By Kendall Richey

Case filed with US District Court in 1999

Case settled for $19 million in 2009

Why the case is important: It brought together the interests of all the major art museums in

the world and put into question the legitimacy of many of the

practices in the art world. It completely overhauled what many

thought to be set and finite jurisdiction on cultural property law

cases.