The Nazis held Louis de Rothschild hostage in Vienna in 1938 and released him for the family's assets

Louis de Rothschild ran the Vienna bank S M von Rothschild, the Creditanstalt and the family's Austrian industries, including the Vitkovice ironworks in Moravia. After the Anschluss of 13 March 1938 the Nazis arrested him and held him at the Hotel Metropole, the Gestapo headquarters. All family property was seized and placed under a German commissioner. His release followed long negotiations and, by a 1955 report, a payment of $21 million, believed to be the largest ransom paid for one person. The terms included giving up the family's claim to Vitkovice^†. He was allowed to leave Austria in 1939^†, went to South America and became a US citizen. He died while swimming at Montego Bay. Nazi officials and museum staff emptied the Rothschild palaces. Palais Albert Rothschild was demolished in 1954 and Palais Nathaniel Rothschild after 1945; offices replaced them. After the war Austrian state museums kept most of the paintings and would not let them leave the country. In 1998 Austria changed its law and ordered its museums to identify looted items. In 1999 about 250 works went back to Bettina Looram, the last member of the Austrian branch who grew up in Vienna before 1938. Christie's in London sold them that July for nearly £57.7 million, about $90 million. In 2026 none of the Vienna palaces stands as a Rothschild house. A family member, Geoffrey Hoguet, sued the city of Vienna in 2020 over a Rothschild hospital foundation the Nazis had dissolved^†.