A painting by the famous Austrian painter, Gustav Klimtlong lost, was recently rediscovered in a private collection and will be auctioned on April 24.

The 1917 Portrait of Miss Leeser, one of the painter’s last works, was commissioned by a wealthy Jewish family.

The first known owner of the painting died in 1943, imprisoned in a concentration camp.

Today the well-preserved painting was presented to the public in Vienna.

The work was exhibited for the first time in 1925 in the Austrian capital, as evidenced by a black and white photograph, the only proof of its existence.

The catalog of the works in that exhibition stated the date and that it was “the property of Mrs. Leeser” whose address was given at 20 Argentinerstrasse.

In the following years, traces of the painting were lost.

It resurfaced when its current owners sought legal advice when it came to inheriting it from distant relatives who had owned it since the 1960s.

What happened in between, remains a mystery, expert Ernst Ploy, of the Kinsky auction house, told reporters.

Henriette Leeser, midwife of the Viennese avant-garde scene, remained in Vienna despite the Nazi dictatorship. He was displaced in 1942 and killed a year later.

Her heirs were informed and some went to Vienna to see the painting, which they have not claimed to this day. “We have no indication that it was confiscated by the Nazis,” Ploy said.