300-Year-Old Painting Stolen by American Soldier During World War II Returned to German Museum

300-Year-Old Painting Stolen by American Soldier During World War II Returned to German Museum
The 18th century painting titled "Landscape of Italian Character" by Vienna-born artist Johann Franz Nepomuk Lauterer in Chicago on Oct. 19, 2023. Claire Savage/AP Photo
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CHICAGO—After a stopover in the U.S. that lasted the better part of a century, a baroque landscape painting that went missing during World War II was returned to Germany on Thursday.

The FBI handed over the artwork by 18th century Austrian artist Johann Franz Nepomuk Lauterer to a German museum representative in a brief ceremony at the German Consulate in Chicago, where the pastoral piece showing an Italian countryside was on display.