By Sheila Orysiek
SAN DIEGO — In 2006, Ronald Lauder (heir of the Estee Lauder cosmetic fortune) paid $135 million to the owners of “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” painted by Gustav Klimt. Commissioned by her husband, the painting was part of the art collection on display in their palatial home during the era of the glittering and artistic society of Vienna in the early 1900’s.
Stolen by the Nazis, the name of the portrait was changed to “Lady in Gold” to hide the Jewish identity of the woman Klimt had portrayed. After the Second World War, it ended up in Vienna’s Belvedere Museum. There was no attempt or intent to return it to the heirs of its rightful owners, many of whom were now living in California and Canada. Austria considered the painting a part of its national heritage – it’s own “Mona Lisa.”
Not until 1998 did Austria very reluctantly begin considering legislation that would attempt to make restitution to the rightful owners of some of the stolen art in its museums. However, the legislation required the claimant to bring suit through the Austrian legal system and appear before what was often a biased Austrian court.
Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles attorney who was the son of a friend of one of the rightful owners of the Klimt painting, decided to place his successful career in securities litigation on hold and pursue the return of the portrait. He had no experience in the field of stolen art and no experience with the Austrian legal system. However, when the Belvedere Museum happened to include a picture of the Klimt painting in an advertising brochure which was distributed in the United States, he realized they were advertising a stolen object and thus he was able to bring suit through the courts in the United States, eventually winning a 6-3 decision before the United States Supreme Court in 2004.
It was a tide turning event when the Belvedere Museum was forced to return the painting to the heirs of the Bloch-Bauer family and opened the way for others to begin legal procedures to reclaim their property.
This book is not simply a tale of this world famous painting and how it was wrested from a nation, Austria, still in denial of its collaborative Nazi past. It is also a story about the people who were part of the painting: the painter, his subject, Adele Bloch-Bauer, the city in which they lived, and the milieu within which they moved. Part of that story is the relationship between Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer which produced such a masterpiece.
Lady in Gold – The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O’Connor, Published by Random House, 2012, is an engrossing book on many levels.
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Orysiek is a freelance writer who specializes in arts and literature. Comments may be made in the space provided below this article or sent to the author at sheila.orysiek@sdjewishworld.com