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image captionRosiers sous les Arbres is the only painting by Gustav Klimt owned by the French state, culture minister Roselyne Bachelot said
France is to return a painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt to the heirs of the Jewish family that was forced to sell it by the Nazis.
French culture minister Roselyne Bachelot said restoring it to its rightful owners was an acknowledgement of the crimes they suffered.
She said the painting bore witness to the broken lives of the Nazi era.
The French state bought the work, its only Klimt, in 1980 without realising its history.