Author Tells Tale Of Famed Bloch-Bauer Portrait

-- "The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, `Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer'" (Knopf), by Anne-Marie O'Connor: In 1907, when Austrian artist Gustav Klimt painted his famed portrait of the Viennese socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer, he could not have known that the sophisticated world inhabited by the sitter's wealthy Jewish family would be destroyed by the Nazi takeover of the country in 1938. Adele's heirs fled to Switzerland – their business interests in tatters and their art collection, including the portrait, confiscated by Hitler's minions.

As Washington Post journalist Anne-Marie O'Connor relates in her painstakingly researched history of the case, it would take 68 years and a massive legal fight before descendants succeeded in reclaiming the art from the Austrian government. The bureaucratic stonewalling and politically motivated bad faith they encountered added insult to the tragedy of the Holocaust. But through the tireless efforts of figures including American attorney E. Randol Schoenberg, who spearheaded the recovery effort, justice was eventually done. O'Connor's narrative is enriched by extensive interviews and a remarkable trove of family correspondence.

"The Lady in Gold" paints a vivid picture of Vienna's prewar Jewish intelligentsia, the artistic career of Klimt, the horrifying rise of Nazism and the complexities of international law and art restitution.

Visitors to New York's Neue Galerie, where the Bloch-Bauer portrait has been on display since its purchase by billionaire Ronald Lauder for a record $135 million in 2006, will be familiar with the sparkling, seductive image. But O'Connor's fascinating tale of beauty, terror, loss and remembrance reveals a deeper truth beneath the golden surface.

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Jonathan Lopez is editor-at-large of Art & Antiques.

Comments

[IDIOTA]

03:49 PM on 02/12/2012

Such a gorgeous work of art

[Leper]

03:11 AM on 02/12/2012

I am happy for the family that they were able to recover their portrait.
Yet, I am still saddened that we lost the masterpieces "A Filosofia", "A Jurispredencia", and "A Medicina".

[Anne-Marie O'Connor]

12:47 AM on 02/22/2012

What happened to the Faculty Paintings--and as many as a dozen others--is very sad.

[Clare53]

10:22 PM on 02/09/2012

I'm in the middle of the book. It's great!

[MrNOBODYCares]

07:51 PM on 02/09/2012

I must get this book I love this piece

Mr. NOBODY
http://kck.st/AsOKOG http://haitiansuperflat.com

[LAGNYC]

12:19 PM on 02/09/2012

I see the correct painting now accompanies the article! Great- thanks for changing that. And thanks, again, for the informative article on the book. Can't wait to read it. I feel that I already know a lot about "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" and its history, but no doubt this new book will shed even more light onto this fascinating and important story.

[Susan Hemingway]

08:10 PM on 02/08/2012

This portrait is one of my favorite works of art. To me, it is an example of a man's ability to portray the woman he loves with passion as a vision of enchantment and we, the outsiders, are gifted for it. Although I freely admit that there is little Klimt creates that doesn't inspire me and give me a vision of a world filled with beauty and grace.

[Sheila Finnigan]

05:59 PM on 02/08/2012

Even the ending of the story, where the painting is rescued at last and bought by a caring philanthropist who placed it on immediate display, exhilarates and saddens at once. That
seemingly never ending story proves once again how envy and greed were and are at the roots of anti-Semitism. My artistic work I hope carries on where the Expressionists, thrown into exile themselves, left off, most having lost their way in a foreign if freer world. I carry a candle when I work, for them, for all those beautiful intelligent Semitic victims, and for all who gave their lives
in that dreadful war, including my brave father.

[entropychic]

08:43 PM on 02/08/2012

thank you for your post and perspective, however, lest anyone think it was lauder who saved the day, i must interject here that if not for the tireless work at the los angeles museum of art, this painting would not even be in this country, reunited with its heirs until they sold to lauder.

[entropychic]

08:47 PM on 02/08/2012

LA COUNTY Museum of Art - please forgive

[LAGNYC]

12:49 PM on 02/08/2012

The book sounds great. As someone who has long admired/enjoyed the famed Klimt on display at The Neue Galerie, I'll definitely get it. However, you show the wrong painting in the article! The one you show is "Adele Bloch-Bauer II," NOT "Adele Bloch Bauer I," the one that was painted in 1907; was at the center of the legal battle between Maria Altman and the Austrian government; and was eventually acquired by Ronald Lauder and placed on permanent display at The Neue Galerie.