Klimt’s Lady in Gold Confronts Austria’s Wartime Myth

Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt, 1907, Oil, 

silver, and gold on canvas

Gustav Klimt, one of the founders of the fin de siècle Vienna Secession movement, had moved through periods of symbolism, erotism, and biblical allegory. Combining erotic images wth Biblical references provoked public outcry and loss of commissions. It was in his final golden phase where he found financial success. His Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, also referred to as The Lady in Gold became entangled in protracted legal battles that were at the vanguard in the narrative of Nazi looted art works, 

Austria has had a schizoid history of how it interprets it’s history during the Nazi era. In 1938 Austria became part of Germany.The top grossing film of 1965, The Sound of Music, portrayed Austria as Hitlers first victim. In the 2015 film, The Woman in Gold, Austria was Hitler’s first partner. Crowds of Austrian cheer and wave Swastika flags as the Germans arrive.

In the 1950’s Austrian war veteran societies were forming and veterans were illegally wearing their uniforms. Left wing political parties criticized that it was not in keeping with building a new future when veterans were saying that they were proud to have served their Nazi led country.

When former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim was running for President of Austria in 1986, omissions in his military record as a German Army Intelligence Officer began to surface. During his 6 years as President he was barred from entering the United States. Most nations declared him a persona no grata. Germany was viewed as rehabiltated with their admissions of guilt and victim compensation programs that dated back to the early 1950’s. Austria’s refusal to acknowledge it’s role in the Holocaust was becoming more apparent. 

The art world wouldn’t significantly address the issue of restorations until 1995, when an international 3 day symposium The Spoils of War—World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property was held in New York City. The Association of Art Museum Directors then developed guidelines to require museums to establish the provenance of their holdings with special attention to ownership between 1933 and 1945. When the Austrian government established the Art Restitution Act in 1998, Maria Altmann the niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer knew that she might be able to recover her family’s paintings.The first lawsuit was filed in 2000. The Galerie Belvedere relinquished the paintings to Altmann in 2006.

Portrait of Wally, Egon Schiele, 1912, 

 Oil on panel.

In 1912, Egon Schiele, a protege of Klimt, painted a portrait of Walburga “Wally” Neuzil, his model and lover. In 1997 the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted an exhibit Egon Schiele: The Leopold Collection. The painting had been owned by Lea Bondi Jaray, a Jewish art dealer who was was forced to relinquish the painting when his business was “Aryanized.” The Austrian Government purchased Leopold’s art collection in 1994 to create the Leopold Museum. A  New York Times article and requests from the Bondi family resulted in the U. S. Customs Service seizing the painting. After more than a decade of legal disputes, the Leopold Museum and the Bondi estate agreed on a 19 million dollar settlement.

Museums, collectors and auction houses are now aware of the costly downside of not knowing the provenance of  what they handle. It only took over half a century to find out.