English Translation

22 the outstanding importance of the painting in relation to all the other paintings of the Czernin Gallery could not be considered. At the end of March 1936, Eugen Czernin met with German Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg, about which he told his lawyer Anton Gassauer that Kurt Schuznigg considered it "highly questionable" whether the authorisation for export could be granted. On January 12, 1937, it appeared that he considered the granting of an export permit for the painting in question to be excluded. In May 1937, the President of the Federal Monument Office, Leodegar Petrin, maintained his opposition to an export permit and noted that an intergovernmental solution to the hereditary and fidekommis legal issues "cannot affect the Austrian Monument Protection Act. He therefore recommended Eugen Czernin and Jaromir Czernine to submit new proposals. On 25 June 1937, the lawyers of Jaromir Czernin and Eugen Czernine offered to acquire the painting "The Praying Greis" from the Harrach painting gallery for the Kunsthistorisches Museum in exchange for an export permit. After consulting Alfred Stix, Director of the Gallery of Paintings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Leodegar Petrin came to the conclusion that this dedication would not be appropriate, so that either the export permit would still be refused or the dedication of another work or a sum of money for purchases and the preservation of monuments would be required. The lawyers of Jaromir Czernin and Eugen Czernine requested an extension of the deadline for new proposals until 15 January 1938. On 9 November 1937, however, Alfred Stix reported to Leodegar Petrin that he intended to acquire the so-called "Wiltener Kelch" for the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The purchase price was set at ATS 550,000,-- very high, but it was one of the "oldest and most exquisite Austrian works of art", to which he considered the importance of the present painting to be overestimated. For the issue of an export licence, he expects an export fee of ATS 500,000,- which would be used for the purchase of the Wiltener Kelch. According to the present documents, no further steps followed this proposal, the Wiltener Kelch was acquired in February 1938 by the Kunsthistorisches Museum without the export of the actual painting had previously been granted.