Making restitution
Catholic charities are to benefit from millions of pounds restored to the family of a Jewish art collector whose paintings were stolen by the Nazis.

Jenny Steiner, an Austrian silk factory owner, amassed a large collection of works by artists such as Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt in the years before the Second World War. She escaped Austria after Nazi Germany annexed it in 1938 with her grandson Harry, who later married Mary Sherratt and became a Catholic.

Mary’s sister, Margherita, inherited the estate and, before her death last year, said she wanted her money to support Catholic projects in Britain and further afield.

Lawyers acting for the executors of Mrs Sherratt’s £7.8 million estate have now established a charitable trust to allocate the cash.

Elaine Roche, a partner at JMW Solicitors, said that the trust could be worth more if additional works come to light: “Margherita Sherratt’s generosity provides something of a positive postscript to a particularly unpleasant story.”