Haider to put Nazi pictures on display
by Michael Leidig in Vienna
Austria's far-Right leader is spending almost ´$50.000 to have Nazi pictures restored and displayed in a museum.
Jörg Haider, who is governor of Carinthia, announced in June that the frescoes would be removed from the parliament building in the regional capital, Klagenfurt.
It later emerged that this would not involve painting over the artwok, but taking it elsewhere.
The artwork covers 67 square yards of wall space. Schwarz, a firm of art restorers from the Austrian city of Graz, has been called in to complete the removal.
The frescoes were painted by Switbert Lobisser (1878-1943) in the parliament's plenary chamber. They were commissioned to glorify the Anschluß when Hitler's forces marched into Austria and annexed the Country.
They were restored in the Sixties, but were then hidden behind wooden panels. Mr Haider said he wanted them removed to rid parliament of "these symbols of National Socialism".
But Burgi Breiter, the artist's daughter, said the frescoes should have been left hidden. "Putting them on public display is madness", she added.
The removal will be completed by Sept 28, when the summer recess ends.
Caption: Part of a fresco from the Nazi era by Switbert Lobisser in the government building in Klagenfurt, Carinthia