Missing: The painting was stolen by the Gestapo from Julius Priester's Vienna home in 1944 A multi-million pound masterpiece by 16th century artist El Greco has been reunited with its rightful owners more than seven decades after it was stolen by the Nazis. El Greco's 'A Portrait of a Gentleman' had been missing ever since the Gestapo raided the collection of Jewish banker Julius Priester in 1944. Mr Priester, a prominent art collector, had fled to Paris with his wife Camilla six years before, when Austria was annexed into Germany as part of the Anschluss in 1938. The couple, who moved to Mexico City two years later, never gave up hope of finding the 50 precious works which had been stolen.El Greco's 'Portrait of a Gentleman' seized by Gestapo from Vienna in 1944Belonged to Jewish businessman Julius Priester, who fled country in 1938One of 50 works taken from the family collection by Nazis during the warLater revealed the painting had been sold to a New York art dealer in 1952But the dealer denied all knowledge - and was only rediscovered last yearThe El Greco has now been returned to the family in its original frame
When the _ were defeated in 1945, Mr Priester set about trying to track down the whereabouts of his stolen art.