Maria Altmann

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Maria Altmann (born 18 February 1916), was a refugee of Nazi Austria, living in the Netherlands briefly before moving to Hollywood, California, in the United States.

Born Maria Bloch-Bauer, in Vienna, she married Fritz Altmann in 1937. Fritz Altman was arrested in Vienna in 1938 and held hostage at the Dachau concentration camp to force his brother Bernhard, by then safely in France, to transfer the B. Altmann textile factory into German hands. Fritz was released and the couple fled to America via England in 1940, leaving behind most of their property, including jewelry that later found its way into the hands of Hermann Göring. Maria was naturalized an American citizen in 1945; the couple had four children.

Poster in Vienna, bidding goodbye to the painting Adele Bloch-Bauer

Maria Altmann is a niece of Czech sugar magnate Ferdinand Bloch, who owned a small collection of artwork by the Austrian master Gustav Klimt, including two portraits of his wife Adele Bloch-Bauer. During the Nazi Anschluss of 1938, these paintings were looted. Bloch died in 1946, soon after World War II, leaving his estate to a nephew and two nieces, including Altmann. By this time, after the paintings had changed hands a number of times, five of these paintings were in the possession of the Austrian Government.

In 1999 she sued the government of Austria in an Austrian court. Under Austrian law, 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 US$135 million, making the filing fee over US$1.5 million. The courts later reduced this amount to $350,000, however this was still considered too costly, and Altmann dropped the case.

In 2000 she filed a lawsuit in the Central District of California, a US federal district court in the Ninth Circuit, under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). The case, Republic of Austria v. Altmann, ended up in the US Supreme Court, which ruled in 2004 that Austria was not immune from such a lawsuit. After this decision, Altmann and Austria entered non-binding arbitration. On 16 January 2006, the arbitration court ruled that Austria is legally required to return the art to Altmann. Because both sides agreed to abide by the ruling of the arbitrator, Austria has returned the works.

The works in contention are:

Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907

Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912

Buchenwald/Birkenwald, 1903

Apfelbaum I, 1912

Häuser in Unterach am Attersee, 1916

The paintings were estimated to be collectively worth at least US$150 million when returned. In monetary terms it represents 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 attempts by Austrians to buy some of the works back.

On June 19, 2006, the New York Times announced the sale of the painting, Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) to cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder for $135 million, at the time the highest sum ever paid for a painting. The painting has been on display in Lauder's New York City Neue Galerie since July 13. Originally the four additional works by Klimt were included in the exhibition.

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 m U.S. and the proceeds were divided up amongst several heirs, some of whom are Canadian.

[edit] Film

Maria Altmann's story was made into a documentary movie "Stealing Klimt", released 2007. The movie featured interviews with Maria Altmann herself, Count Hubertus Czernin, Tina Walzer, Randol Schoenberg and others who were closely involved with the story.