article_snippet: Missing: the painting was stolen by the Gestapo from Julius Priester's Vienna home in 1944 .
article_snippet: El Greco's 'Portrait of a Gentleman'  had been missing ever since the Gestapo raided the collection of Jewish banker Julius Priester in 1944.
article_snippet: Mr Priester, a prominent art collector, had fled to Paris with El Greco's 'Portrait of a Gentleman'  wife Camilla six years before, when Austria was annexed into Germany as part of the Anschluss in 1938.
article_snippet: When the war ended in 1945, Julius Priester's set about trying to recover Julius Priester's collection - a hunt Julius Priester's heirs took up on Julius Priester's death in 1954.
article_snippet: Mr Priester's art collection, comprising of pieces by celebrated artists including Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyke, was just one of many plundered from wealthy Jews on direct orders from Hitler.
article_snippet: When the Nazis were defeated in 1945, Mr Priester set about trying to track down the whereabouts of Mr Priester stolen art.
article_snippet: Mr Priester spent the best part of a decade searching for his stolen art, working with the Austrian authorities to spread the word around the world.
article_snippet: In 1953, the Austrian Federal Police wrote to Mr Priester to say Mr Priester had been sold by the Gestapo to New York art brokers Knoedler, arriving in New York in 1952.
article_snippet: When Mr Priester died in 1954 aged 84, Mr Priester family picked up the search and continued investigations into the missing artwork.
article_snippet: Mr Priester was a banker and president of Austrian petrol firm Petroleumgesellschaft Galizin.
article_snippet: Mr Priester began collecting art in the 1920s, building up a notable gallery.
highlights_snippet: El Greco's 'Portrait of a Gentleman' seized by Gestapo from Vienna in 1944 .
  
highlights_snippet: Belonged to Jewish businessman Julius Priester, who fled country in 1938 .
  
highlights_snippet: One of 50 works taken from the family collection by Nazis during the war .
  
highlights_snippet: Later revealed the painting had been sold to a New York art dealer in 1952 .
  