GENEVA

The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office has ordered the seizure of a Gustav Klimt painting at Hungary's request, the public broadcaster ORF reported late Wednesday evening on its ZiB2 program.

Hungary claims ownership of Klimt's painting of a Ghanaian prince, an Austrian symbolist painter and founding member of the Vienna Secession movement, which has reappeared after decades, according to the broadcaster.

A few years ago, the Vienna gallery Wienerroither & Kohlbacher received an offer for the 1897 portrait of the dark-skinned Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona. They got it in poor, dirty condition from a collector couple. The estate stamp was barely recognizable, according to the report.

It was previously resold in Hungary before being offered for sale by a salesperson at the Wienerroither & Kohlbacher gallery in Vienna.

According to the report, Hungarian authorities believe the seller hid the fact that it was a Klimt painting when it was exported.

According to ZiB2, an export license was obtained, but it does not state that the painting is by Klimt.

The portrait most likely remained in Klimt's possession after its creation before being auctioned off from his estate in Vienna in 1923.

According to the broadcaster, it was documented as a loan for the Klimt memorial exhibition at the Vienna Secession in 1928 and was owned by Ernestine Klein.

After she and her husband were forced to flee Vienna for Monaco due to their Jewish heritage, the broadcaster’s report said the painting was moved from their villa in Hietzing to Hungary in the late 1930s to avoid falling into the hands of the Nazis.