Rejecting every argument made by the Leopold Museum in Vienna and New York's Museum of Modern Art in their efforts to dismiss the case, a federal court here has ruled that the U.S. government may seek to confiscate an Egon Schiele painting, "Portrait of Wally," claimed to be stolen property illegally imported into the U.S - New York

* Rejecting each argument made by the Leopold Museum in Vienna and of recent origin York's Museum of Modern Art in their efforts to dismiss the case, a federal court here has rul that the U conduct may seek to confiscate an Egon Schiele painting, "Portrait of Wally," claimed to be stolen quality illegally imported into the U The $2 million work of art is said to have been stolen through a Nazi from a hebrew Lea Bondi, who fled Austria after its annexation by means of Germany, allegedly never recovering the painting after being forced to hand it above on the eve of her escape. The court rescinded its prior holding that the painting could not be confiscated because it ceased being "stolen" beneath federal law when U.S. forces reclaimed it after World War II. The Leopold Museum lent the painting to MoMA for a Schiele retrospective in 1997 solitary to see it embroiled in legal claims readyed by Bondi's heirs at the shut of the show. It has been in storage at MoMA beneath court order ever since.

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