Hungarian count's heirs reclaim objet d'art from museum

The legatees of Count Antal Sigray were returned a family heirloom, the sculpture The Verdict of Paris, from Keszthely's Helikon Chateau Museum on Thursday. The heirs won two of three lawsuits in the last 15 years and were returned a portrait of Johanna Ocskay from the National Museum in 2007.

Count Sigray deposited an estimated 1,000 pieces of furniture, paintings and sculptures, part of the family property, in museums in the 1940s and 1950s.

The art treasures, hundreds of which have been lost over the decades, gathered dust in museums and were the focus of interest when six heirs of the count demanded their legacy.

The Balaton Museum in Keszthely, the Hungarian Museum of Natural Sciences and the Museum of Fine Arts returned 130 art treasures to the family of their own accord but the National Museum, the Museum of Applied Arts and the Helikon Chateau Museum decided not to return any of the 250 art treasures until ordered to do so by final court verdicts.

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