"They say now Austria was a victim of the Nazis. Believe me, there were no victims. The women were throwing flowers, the church bells were ringing. They welcomed them with open arms. They were jubilant." - Maria Altmann, Adele Bloch-Bauer's niece, who pursued the return of "The Lady in Gold" portrait"Those who have heard the story of the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer can never again see her as a 'lady in gold.' Frozen in Vienna's golden moment, Adele achieved her dream of immortality, far more than she ever could have imagined." - from THE LADY IN GOLDIn 1907, the celebrated Austrian artist Gustav Klimt created a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a prominent member of Vienna's Jewish high society and perhaps Klimt's lover. He entitled the painting "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (as opposed to his 1912 "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II").Following the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, Klimt's art was among that declared degenerate by the Nazis. His portraits, paintings, and drawings were appropriated or destroyed. His Jewish patrons had their assets stolen, then were driven to suicide, forced into exile, or sent to the camps.Much of Klimt's art survived World War II. The "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I", renamed by the Nazis "The Lady in Gold" to erase its subject's Jewishness, was in the possession of Vienna's Belvedere, a former royal palace reincarnated as a national art gallery. Subsequently, Austria and the Belvedere vigorously resisted any calls for the restitution of all stolen art to its former owners, Jewish or otherwise.The 2015 filmĀ
Woman in Gold
Ā starred Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann, the niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer living in Los Angeles, who successfully obliged the Austrian government to return the 1907 painting of her aunt (and four other Klimts) to the family in 2006.This book, THE LADY IN GOLD by Anne-Marie O'Connor, is essentially the comprehensive narrative back story of the movie - Klimt, his art, the Bloch-Bauer family, Adele, Maria, the effects of the 1938 Nazi Anschluss and the war years on all the story's characters who survived - as well as the fight to get the portrait returned to the Bloch-Bauer descendants and the aftermath of the restoration.As the author states on the last page of her book, those readers of it who have seen or will see the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" will now not see that artwork (currently on display in New York City's Neue Galerie) from the same perspective.Having viewed the film and now read this book, I cannot but admire the author's thoroughness in telling the background to the former. It is, perhaps, too thorough. The ripples of Klimt's artwork touched many peripheral characters in the Bloch-Bauer family and unrelated contemporaries, and O'Connor didn't hesitate to include them in the narrative. As the war years progressed and the experiences of these individuals were portrayed, my reaction was: "Who ARE these people?" In any case, they were quickly and easily forgotten as I followed the path of the "Lady in Gold" portrait. Thus, the book is in need of some serious editing.The two protagonists in the film were Maria (Mirren) and her lawyer Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds). This focus might perhaps lead the viewer to believe that their battle to lever the five Klimt paintings out of Austria's grasp was a crusade universally supported by the four other involved heirs. The book reveals this not to be the case. Indeed, Maria's niece Nelly, a renowned cell biologist living in Canada, bitterly opposed the action. Then, once Austria gave them up, there was internecine disagreement on whether they should be donated to museums to ensure public display, which is what Adele ostensibly wanted, or sold at auction, which might cause them to disappear and never again be seen. Since it's a matter of public record, it's not a spoiler to point out that all five works of art were eventually sold for $327.7 million split 40:60 between Schoenberg and the heirs. And the author states that the four works other than "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" have vanished into private collections."Nelly wanted peace. Maria wanted atonement - recognition of a world swept away, an act of contrition." - from THE LADY IN GOLDThe effect of the book on the film, with the former's documentation of family infighting and a whiff of grubby cupidity, is to perhaps dull some of the luster of the gold leaf surrounding Adele. And nothing can place Austria in a better light.Last October, while on vacation in NYC, my wife and I stopped by the Neue Galerie specifically to inspect Adele's famous likeness. The museum was closed (on a Tuesday afternoon, can you believe!). I wish now we'd made more of an effort to return on Thursday.