Octogenarian seeks a golden painting of her aunt...

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2015)

From the beginning, I have wondered why Maria Altmann, a California woman who died in 2011 at the age of 94, began an arduous fight in her senior years to recover a painting of her aunt. The painting had been stolen when the Nazis occupied Austria in 1938. Altmann's fight began in 1998 when the Republic of Austria was considering an Art Restitution Act requiring provenance research in Austrian museums and collections and restitution to former owners and their heirs. The Act was instituted in 1999.
My interest in Nazi stolen art began in the early months of 2014 when I read two books of nonfiction. The first was a 5l8 page tome Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel, that related the true story about some of the men and women from 13 countries who gave their time, talent, and effort to save pieces of art and other culturally important items before their destruction by Hitler and the Nazis during the waning days of World War II.
The second book was The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O'Connor. I found O'Connor's tale primarily a history of a prominent and wealthy Austrian family, whose heirs sought to regain their inheritance many years after the end of World War II. O'Connor relates the history, as noted in the acknowledgments, mainly through the eyes and letters of Adele's niece, Maria Victoria Bloch-Bauer Altmann.
About the only thing that Anne-Marie O'Connor, I wrote in a book review, doesn't give readers in her 349 page tome written in a flowery and compelling narrative is a simple yet spectacular-sounding description of Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt. The painting completed in 1907 is an oil, silver and gold leaf on canvas. It measures an awe-inspiring 138 cm by 138 cm and is considered a masterpiece of the Viennese Art Nouveau period (1890-1910). An art lover and blogger, Sabine Clappaert, tells us that "On first inspection, the portrait, with its vast expanse of delicate gold filigree that surrounds an ethereal face looks like just that: a commissioned portrait that flatters the upper-class wife of a mighty Viennese business tycoon..." Watch quietly, she says, for a while and you will note that "Surrounded by a daring sea of gold Adele appears fragile, and Klimt paints her with gentle intimate nuance. Her hair is delicately heaped, lids droop heavily across large almond eyes, plump lips parted slightly and flushed cheeks spread a warm glow across her face. Her elegantly tapered hands are folded loosely to hide a deformed finger..."
Soon I began to see why Maria Altmann sought to own the painting of her aunt but I still have one nagging question. Why did octogenarian and Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann and her stockbroker Randol Schoenberg (who also had a law degree) wage a lengthy battle, first with the Austrian government and then in the Supreme Court of America, to recover the painting of her Aunt Adele in 2006...and then within a few months of its recovery sell it to Ronald S. Lauder for his Neue Galerie in Manhattan for $135 million?
Perhaps an upcoming American British drama film WOMAN IN GOLD will answer my question. The film is directed by Simon Curtis and written by Alexi Kaye Campbell. Dame Helen Mirren plays Maria Altmann and Ryan Reynolds is the young lawyer, Randol Schoenberg.
WOMAN IN GOLD has a theatrical release of April 3, 2015 in select theaters.