Maria Altmann
Encyclopedia
Maria Altmann was a Jewish refugee from Nazi
Austria
, noted for her ultimately successful legal campaign to reclaim five family-owned paintings by the artist Gustav Klimt
, stolen by the Nazis
during World War II, from the Government of Austria.
She was born Maria Victoria Bloch, in Vienna
. The family name was changed to Bloch-Bauer the following year. She was a niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy Jewish patron of the arts who served as the model for some of Klimt's best-known paintings, including two of those eventually recovered by her niece. After an Austrian researcher questioned the Austrian state's ownership of the paintings in 1998, Maria Altmann experienced some years of fruitless negotiations and efforts to litigate in the Austrian court system, before a 2004 ruling in her favor by the United States Supreme Court opened the door to an Austrian arbitration process. The arbitration panel of three Austrian judges in turn ruled in 2006 that the art must be returned to Altmann and other family heirs. Altmann died on 7 February 2011, shortly before her 95th birthday. Obituaries appeared in The New York Times
, The Guardian
, and many other publications internationally.
In 1937, Maria married Fredrick ("Fritz") Altmann. Not long after their Paris honeymoon, the 1938 Anschluss
incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany (in Maria's later account: "The women were throwing flowers, the church bells were ringing. They welcomed them with open arms. They were jubilant"). Under the Nazis, Fredrick was arrested in Austria and held hostage at the Dachau concentration camp to force his brother Bernhard, by then safely in France, to transfer the Bernhard Altmann textile factory into German hands. Fredrick was subsequently released and the couple fled for their lives. They made a harrowing escape, leaving behind their home, loved ones and property, including jewelry that later found its way into the collection of Hermann Göring
. Many of their friends and relatives were either killed by the Nazis or committed suicide. Traveling by way of Liverpool, England, they reached the Unied States and settled first in Fall River, Massachusetts
, and eventually in Los Angeles, California
. Maria became a naturalized American citizen in 1945; the couple had four children.
Maria's uncle, Czech sugar magnate Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, owned a small collection of artwork by the Austrian master Gustav Klimt
, including two portraits of his wife, Adele Bloch-Bauer. In her will, Adele, who died in 1925, well before the rise of the Nazis, had "kindly asked" her husband to leave the Klimts to the Austrian State Gallery upon his own death; a much-debated point in more recent years has been whether this request should or should not be considered legally binding upon her husband. In any event, following the Nazi Anschluss
of 1938 and Ferdinand's flight from Austria, the paintings were looted, initially falling into the hands of a Nazi lawyer. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer died in 1946, soon after World War II
, leaving his estate to a nephew and two nieces, including Maria Altmann. By this time, five of these paintings had made their way into the possession of the Austria
n government.
With Austria under pressure in the 1990s to re-examine its Nazi past, the Austrian Green Party helped pass a new law in 1998 introducing greater transparency into the hitherto murky process of dealing with the issue of restitution of artworks looted during the Nazi period. Inter alia, by opening the archives of the Ministry of Culture for the first time, the new law enabled the Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin
to discover that, contrary to what had been generally assumed, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer had never in fact donated the paintings to the state museum.
On learning of Czernin's findings, Altmann at first sought to negotiate with the Austrian government about receiving some of the paintings back. At this stage she asked them only for the Klimt landscapes belonging to her family, and was willing to allow Austria to keep the portraits. Her proposal was not, however, treated seriously by the Austrian authorities, and no common ground was reached. In 1999 she sought to sue the government of Austria in an Austrian court. Under Austrian law, however, the filing fee for such a lawsuit is determined as a percentage of the recoverable amount. At the time, the five paintings were estimated to be worth approximately USD $135 million, making the filing fee over USD $1.5 million. Although the Austrian courts later reduced this amount to $350,000, this was still too much for Altmann, and she dropped her case in the Austrian court system.
In 2000 Altmann filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California
under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act
(FSIA). The case, Republic of Austria v. Altmann
, ended up in the Supreme Court of the United States
, which ruled in 2004 that Austria was not immune from such a lawsuit. After this decision, Altmann and Austria agreed to binding arbitration by a panel of three Austrian judges. On 16 January 2006, the arbitration panel ruled that Austria was legally required to return the art to Altmann and the other family heirs, and in March of the same year Austria returned the paintings.
The works are:
The paintings were estimated to be collectively worth at least US$150 million when returned. In monetary terms this represented the largest single return of Nazi-looted art in Austria. The paintings left Austria in March 2006 and were on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
until June 30, 2006. There were unsuccessful attempts by Austrians to buy some of the works back. Months after the Austrian government returned Altmann's family's belongings, she consigned the Klimt paintings to the auction house Christie's, to be sold on behalf of her family. The sale of the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
(1907) to cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder
for $135 million was at the time the highest sum ever paid for a painting. Since July 13, 2006, the painting has been on public display in the Neue Galerie
in New York City
, one of the leading centers internationally for early twentieth century German and Austrian art, which was established by Lauder in 2001. The four additional works by Klimt were also exhibited at the Neue Gallerie for several weeks in 2006.
In November 2006, Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) was sold at auction at Christie's in New York fetching almost $88m. In total the four remaining paintings sold for $192.7 million and the proceeds were divided up among several heirs.
, and leading experts from around the world. Altmann's story was also the subject of the film Stealing Klimt, which was released in 2007. That film also featured interviews with Altmann and others who were closely involved with the story. The documentary The Rape of Europa
, which was about Nazi plunder of European art generally, also included material about Altmann.
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, noted for her ultimately successful legal campaign to reclaim five family-owned paintings by the artist Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
, stolen by the Nazis
Nazi plunder
Nazi plunder refers to art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized looting of European countries during the time of the Third Reich by agents acting on behalf of the ruling Nazi Party of Germany. Plundering occurred from 1933 until the end of World War II, particularly by military...
during World War II, from the Government of Austria.
She was born Maria Victoria Bloch, in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. The family name was changed to Bloch-Bauer the following year. She was a niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy Jewish patron of the arts who served as the model for some of Klimt's best-known paintings, including two of those eventually recovered by her niece. After an Austrian researcher questioned the Austrian state's ownership of the paintings in 1998, Maria Altmann experienced some years of fruitless negotiations and efforts to litigate in the Austrian court system, before a 2004 ruling in her favor by the United States Supreme Court opened the door to an Austrian arbitration process. The arbitration panel of three Austrian judges in turn ruled in 2006 that the art must be returned to Altmann and other family heirs. Altmann died on 7 February 2011, shortly before her 95th birthday. Obituaries appeared in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, and many other publications internationally.
Background to the Klimt case
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany (in Maria's later account: "The women were throwing flowers, the church bells were ringing. They welcomed them with open arms. They were jubilant"). Under the Nazis, Fredrick was arrested in Austria and held hostage at the Dachau concentration camp to force his brother Bernhard, by then safely in France, to transfer the Bernhard Altmann textile factory into German hands. Fredrick was subsequently released and the couple fled for their lives. They made a harrowing escape, leaving behind their home, loved ones and property, including jewelry that later found its way into the collection of Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
. Many of their friends and relatives were either killed by the Nazis or committed suicide. Traveling by way of Liverpool, England, they reached the Unied States and settled first in Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located about south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and west of New Bedford and south of Taunton. The city's population was 88,857 during the 2010 census, making it the tenth largest city in...
, and eventually in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Maria became a naturalized American citizen in 1945; the couple had four children.
Maria's uncle, Czech sugar magnate Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, owned a small collection of artwork by the Austrian master Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
, including two portraits of his wife, Adele Bloch-Bauer. In her will, Adele, who died in 1925, well before the rise of the Nazis, had "kindly asked" her husband to leave the Klimts to the Austrian State Gallery upon his own death; a much-debated point in more recent years has been whether this request should or should not be considered legally binding upon her husband. In any event, following the Nazi Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
of 1938 and Ferdinand's flight from Austria, the paintings were looted, initially falling into the hands of a Nazi lawyer. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer died in 1946, soon after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, leaving his estate to a nephew and two nieces, including Maria Altmann. By this time, five of these paintings had made their way into the possession of the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n government.
With Austria under pressure in the 1990s to re-examine its Nazi past, the Austrian Green Party helped pass a new law in 1998 introducing greater transparency into the hitherto murky process of dealing with the issue of restitution of artworks looted during the Nazi period. Inter alia, by opening the archives of the Ministry of Culture for the first time, the new law enabled the Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin
Hubertus Czernin
Hubertus Czernin was an Austrian investigative journalist....
to discover that, contrary to what had been generally assumed, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer had never in fact donated the paintings to the state museum.
On learning of Czernin's findings, Altmann at first sought to negotiate with the Austrian government about receiving some of the paintings back. At this stage she asked them only for the Klimt landscapes belonging to her family, and was willing to allow Austria to keep the portraits. Her proposal was not, however, treated seriously by the Austrian authorities, and no common ground was reached. In 1999 she sought to sue the government of Austria in an Austrian court. Under Austrian law, however, the filing fee for such a lawsuit is determined as a percentage of the recoverable amount. At the time, the five paintings were estimated to be worth approximately USD $135 million, making the filing fee over USD $1.5 million. Although the Austrian courts later reduced this amount to $350,000, this was still too much for Altmann, and she dropped her case in the Austrian court system.
In 2000 Altmann filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California
United States District Court for the Central District of California
The United States District Court for the Central District of California serves over 18 million people in southern and central California, making it the largest federal judicial district by population...
under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 is a United States law, codified at Title 28, §§ 1330, 1332, 1391, 1441, and 1602-1611 of the United States Code, that establishes the limitations as to whether a foreign sovereign nation may be sued in U.S. courts—federal or state...
(FSIA). The case, Republic of Austria v. Altmann
Republic of Austria v. Altmann
Republic of Austria v. Altmann, 541 U.S. 677 , was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act applies retroactively...
, ended up in the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
, which ruled in 2004 that Austria was not immune from such a lawsuit. After this decision, Altmann and Austria agreed to binding arbitration by a panel of three Austrian judges. On 16 January 2006, the arbitration panel ruled that Austria was legally required to return the art to Altmann and the other family heirs, and in March of the same year Austria returned the paintings.
The works are:
The paintings were estimated to be collectively worth at least US$150 million when returned. In monetary terms this represented the largest single return of Nazi-looted art in Austria. The paintings left Austria in March 2006 and were on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
until June 30, 2006. There were unsuccessful attempts by Austrians to buy some of the works back. Months after the Austrian government returned Altmann's family's belongings, she consigned the Klimt paintings to the auction house Christie's, to be sold on behalf of her family. The sale of the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is a painting by Gustav Klimt completed in 1907. According to press reports it was sold for US$135 million to Ronald Lauder for his Neue Galerie in New York City in June 2006, which made it at that time the most expensive painting for about 4 months...
(1907) to cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder
Ronald Lauder
Ronald Steven Lauder is a Jewish-American businessman, civic leader, philanthropist, and art collector. Forbes lists Lauder among the richest people of the world with an estimated net worth of $3.0 billion in 2007.-Life and career:...
for $135 million was at the time the highest sum ever paid for a painting. Since July 13, 2006, the painting has been on public display in the Neue Galerie
Neue Galerie
The Neue Galerie New York is a museum of early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design located at 86th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, United States...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, one of the leading centers internationally for early twentieth century German and Austrian art, which was established by Lauder in 2001. The four additional works by Klimt were also exhibited at the Neue Gallerie for several weeks in 2006.
In November 2006, Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) was sold at auction at Christie's in New York fetching almost $88m. In total the four remaining paintings sold for $192.7 million and the proceeds were divided up among several heirs.
Film
Altmann's story has been recounted in three documentary films. Adele's Wish by filmmaker Terrence Turner, the husband of Altmann's great-niece, was released in 2008. The film features interviews with Altmann, her lawyer E. Randol SchoenbergE. Randol Schoenberg
E. Randol Schoenberg is a U.S. attorney, based in Los Angeles, California. He is the grandson of the Austrian composers Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl....
, and leading experts from around the world. Altmann's story was also the subject of the film Stealing Klimt, which was released in 2007. That film also featured interviews with Altmann and others who were closely involved with the story. The documentary The Rape of Europa
The Rape of Europa
The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War is a book and a subsequent documentary film of somewhat related material. The book, by Lynn H. Nicholas, explores the Nazi plunder of looted art treasures from occupied countries, and the consequences...
, which was about Nazi plunder of European art generally, also included material about Altmann.
See also
- National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National SocialismNational Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National SocialismThe National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, , is a fund created by the Republic of Austria to seek to apply restitution for property confiscated by the Nazis during World War II...
- The Bloch-Bauer Family
- Adele Bloch-Bauer
- Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
External links
- BBC news story describing sale of the art works
- National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism
- Holocaust Victims' Information and Support Center
- American Gets Win in Looted - Art Dispute
- Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Altmann v. Republic of Austria
- Supreme Court ruling in Republic of Austria v. Altmann
- News story about Altmann's Canadian heirs