August 02, 2006
Some things you just can’t put a price tag on. The artwork on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), in May of 2006, Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer exemplify the theme from the MasterCard ad campaign “priceless”.
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, was a prominent Jewish Viennese businessman and head of the Austrian sugar industry. He was a collector of art who had commissioned painter and founder of the Austrian Secession Movement, Gustav Klimt, to do portraits of his wife Adele. Bloch-Bauer purchased two of the portraits as well as four landscapes by the same artist. These paintings were hanging in Ferdinand’s home until the day that the Nazis seized its entire contents.
When Adele Bloch-Bauer died in 1925 she left a will requesting her husband leave the Klimt paintings in his will to a Vienna Gallery. While Ferdinand was willing to do so when the Nazis invaded the Austrian territory, he fled for his life leaving all his possessions behind. He died in exile in 1945 having revoked all previous wills.
Enter Maria Altmann the niece who attempted to take legal action against the Austrian Government. The case reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled against the Austrian government in 2004. After arbitration it was decided that five Klimts should be returned to the heirs including Bloch-Bauer's elderly niece, Maria Altmann, unless the Austrian government could raise the money to buy them back.
Long story short, it was reported in June that Lauder had paid $135m for the painting, easily beating the previous record of $104m paid for Picasso's Boy With a Pipe by an unnamed bidder two years ago.
The sold painting will occupy one of the finest buildings on Fifth Avenue. The four other Klimts will also be sold, but in the meantime will hang alongside the gold portrait at the Neue Gallery from July 17 to September 18.
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, was a prominent Jewish Viennese businessman and head of the Austrian sugar industry. He was a collector of art who had commissioned painter and founder of the Austrian Secession Movement, Gustav Klimt, to do portraits of his wife Adele. Bloch-Bauer purchased two of the portraits as well as four landscapes by the same artist. These paintings were hanging in Ferdinand’s home until the day that the Nazis seized its entire contents.
When Adele Bloch-Bauer died in 1925 she left a will requesting her husband leave the Klimt paintings in his will to a Vienna Gallery. While Ferdinand was willing to do so when the Nazis invaded the Austrian territory, he fled for his life leaving all his possessions behind. He died in exile in 1945 having revoked all previous wills.
Enter Maria Altmann the niece who attempted to take legal action against the Austrian Government. The case reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled against the Austrian government in 2004. After arbitration it was decided that five Klimts should be returned to the heirs including Bloch-Bauer's elderly niece, Maria Altmann, unless the Austrian government could raise the money to buy them back.
Long story short, it was reported in June that Lauder had paid $135m for the painting, easily beating the previous record of $104m paid for Picasso's Boy With a Pipe by an unnamed bidder two years ago.
The sold painting will occupy one of the finest buildings on Fifth Avenue. The four other Klimts will also be sold, but in the meantime will hang alongside the gold portrait at the Neue Gallery from July 17 to September 18.
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