PARIS AP The heirs of a Jewish art collector whose claims for a Nazi-looted Braque painting were rejected have sued the Georges Pompidou Center for receiving stolen property their lawyer said Tuesday. The suit is the first of its kind in France where the National Museum Authority possesses nearly 2000 pieces of art looted by the Nazis during World War II. Antoine Comte the lawyer representing the heirs of Alphonse Kann claims the Pompidou Center acquired ``Le Joueur de Guitare'' The Guitar Player in 1981 knowing of its murky wartime past. But Pompidou Center President Jean-Jacques Aillagon told The Associated Press that the center had bought the painting ``in good faith.'' ``The committee had no idea that the painting transited through the Kann collection'' he said in a telephone interview. The legal action comes during a major conference on looted Jewish assets in Washington and in the wake of a spate of comments by French officials eager to show that progress is being made. President Jacques Chirac said Monday that the ``question of reparation has become a top priority.'' Speaking at the inauguration of the new Museum of Jewish Art and History Chirac addressed the thorny issue of unclaimed art works a group of which are displayed in the museum. ``Among the works on exhibit in this museum are some that were stolen from families that never returned from their long path of suffering. The place of these works naturally is here France'' he said referring to France's determination to keep the works at home rather than have them sold at auction to benefit survivors as some have advocated. The French Jewish community supports that position but has urged quicker action. At a Jewish group's dinner on Saturday Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced measures to speed up the handling of individual restitution claims. France has returned five works in the last two years. During the war Nazi soldiers looted thousands of works from French Jews. Those paintings considered ``degenerate'' were sold off or traded. The Braque a geometrical collage done in 1914 and today one of the Pompidou Center's most prestigious possessions was one of them. The painting finally surfaced in a 1948 exhibition in Germany. It traveled to New York and Cleveland in 1949. Its provenance: a loan from Andre Lefevre a Parisian collector notorious for trading with the Nazis. Earlier this year the Pompidou Center rejected the Kann family's restitution claim saying it bought the dlrs 2 million work ``honestly.'' The suit filed Monday in a Paris criminal court means that a magistrate will open an inquiry. Hundreds of looted works were returned to the Kann family after the war. Last year Kann's heirs recovered Albert Gleizes' ``Paysage Cubist'' from the government. ma-jn APW19981201.0961.txt.body.html APW19981201.0691.txt.body.html