Court: US museum can keep work sold in Nazi era

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that Boston's Museum of Fine Arts can retain ownership of a 1913 painting by Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka that was sold during the Nazi occupation of Austria.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in a lawsuit the museum filed against Claudia Seger-Thomschitz, who claims Kokoschka's "Two Nudes (Lovers)" was sold under duress in 1939 by one of her ancestors, Oskar Reichel, a Jewish doctor and art collector who lived in Vienna.

The museum said its research showed the painting was sold voluntarily and was eventually donated to the museum in 1973.

The appeals court did not rule on the legality of the museum's …