Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Gustav Klimt
1907
Neue Galerie New York, New York City, NY, USA
Austrian artist Gustav Klimt is probably most known for this piece, which at one point was the most expensive painting ever sold - for a whopping $135 million.
What people may not know about this painting is its interesting ownership history. The painting’s subject, Ms. Adele Bloch-Bauer, passed away in 1925 with the request in her will that this painting, along with a four others by Klimt, be donated to the Austrian State Gallery. When her widower husband fled Austria during WWII, his property (including this painting) was confiscated by the Nazis. Later, in his 1945 will, he bequeathed the Klimt paintings to his nieces and nephews.
In 1998, the Austrian government ordered that all paintings confiscated by the Nazi party be returned to their owners. At this time, the paintings had been on display in Vienna for over 60 years, and the Austrian government felt that they were the rightful owners because Bloch-Bauer had specified in her will that the paintings be hung in an Australian gallery. Bloch-Bauer’s nieces and nephews felt that they were the rightful owners, as the paintings had been granted to them in their uncle’s will. After a long legal battle, it was decided in 2004 that Ms. Maria Altmann, niece to Bloch-Bauer, was the rightful owner of the Klimt paintings. In 2006, it was sold to Ronald Lauder and the Neue Galerie in New York in the infamous $135 million transaction.
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