Talk:Maria Altmann

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[edit] The Klimt paintings

After reading the article on Maria Altmann and a little bit of the history on the paintings involved in the case vs. Austria, it seems that the Austrian government took advantage of the fact that the pictures were aquired in a devious way. Glorifying that it is okay to own something you know was stolen. You may have not been the one to commit the act but you are supporting it by not returning it to it's righful owner. To claim ownership over property that was stolen during such a horrible period is ludacris. In the will of Ferdinand Bloch all the items in his estate were expressed to one Maria Altmann including the paintings . My question is How can someone, government or other claim property as their own? Family heirlooms do not classify as a national symbol. The artist however should be glorified for such a beautiful piece. With all do respect to Gustav Klimt and his Austrian heritage it is understandable that such beautiful works would be hard to let go of. However the paintings were never really obtained honestly. Furthermore, the "Golden Rule" may not apply to everyone and everything, that being Would you question the validity of ownership of a family heirloom? In this case it should. Also if the "heirloom" was considered a "wealthy" object would you object to the government or persons who falsely claim it to get a piece of the wealth even though it was aquired by false means? In closing if Maria Altmann didn't battle for these works it would be dis-respectful to her uncle. This was a legacy he left to his family , who have the right to decide the fate of there property. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.33.133.183 (talk • contribs) 21 June 2006.

What I fail to understand is why Maria Altmann was so keen to have the paintings taken out of the Belvedere in the first place. She says: "It was always the wish of my uncle and aunt to make their collection available to the public." But they were already available to the public, in Vienna. She then gave them to a museum in Los Angeles, saying: "In gratitude to the city and county of Los Angeles, which provided me a home when I fled the Nazis, and whose courts enabled me to recover my family's paintings at long last, I am very pleased that these wonderful paintings will be seen [in LA]." But that gratitude evidently didn't last long because she has now sold "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" to a museum in New York. I'm not disputing Altmann's legal right to own the paintings. But she should have left them where they belong, in Vienna. --Richardrj 08:59, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

She initially wanted the paintings to remain in Vienna, however the government should have given her the compensation which was her right. She offered a settlement to the government, even wrote a letter to the minister, which was never answered. The government simply ignored her offer for years, waiting instead for her to go through court and basically hoping that she would simply die with her 90 years. and so in that way the "problem" would have solved itself "naturally". Well too bad for the government for being so stupid and ignoring her reasonable offer. They rode this thing all the way and didn't want to give her anything, and basically lost everything, this serves Austria right. After she won her case, the government all of a sudden wanted to reach a settlement with her to buy some of the paintings back. At that point she said she was done talking to the government after trying for years to come to a settlement. I think it only right that the lady took the paintings out of the country since the Austrian government was too stupid and dumb to have come to an agreement with her earlier. The government was heavily criticised by the opposition for failing to have secured an agreement earlier. Gryffindor 07:39, 30 June 2006 (UTC)