Art stolen by Nazis has a homecoming in L.A.

Cecilia Alvear Producer • E-mail

LOS ANGELES - Who is this woman so beautiful and haughty in her golden garments worthy of any red carpet?

She is Adele Bloch-Bauer, and her sumptuous portrait is the centerpiece of a special exhibit, "Gustav Klimt: Five paintings from the collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer," on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for the next three months.

The story of the Bloch-Bauers and how the Klimt masterpieces, seized by the Nazis after Germany annexed Austria in 1938, came to Los Angeles is a complex saga of wartime loss and post-war perseverance.

And for Adele Bloch-Bauer's niece, 90-year-old Los Angeles resident Maria Altmann, the recovery of the art after more than 60 years is a reunion of sorts. "I grew up with those paintings,” said Altmann. “They were hanging in my uncle's house."

Golden days
In the early 20th century the Bloch-Bauers, Altmann’s aunt and uncle, were prominent members of Vienna’s cultured and wealthy Jewish elite.

Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, an industrialist and art patron, had a mansion in Vienna and a castle near Prague. Pointing to a photograph of Adele, Altmann remembers her as someone who "just loved to learn and study... . If she were around today she would have had a career in politics, or would have gotten a Ph.D.”

Ric Francis / AP file Maria Altmann, center, looks towards Hubertus Czernin, right, an Austrian journalist who uncovered the story of the looted Klimt artwork, as the paintings are unveiled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on April 4.

Instead, given the social constraints of the era, Adele hosted a "salon" where famous writers, musicians and artists met regularly to engage in spirited discussions at a time when Vienna was a key cultural center.

As part of this scene, the Bloch-Bauers were generous patrons of Gustav Klimt, widely considered one of the great figures of early 20th century painting, who embodied the height of Viennese art at the time.

"He painted dazzling portraits of Vienna's society women,” said Stephanie Barron, LACMA’s Curator.

One of Klimt’s best known works, Barron said, is “his 1907 magnificent ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I’ ... an example of his groundbreaking ‘gold style’ with sumptuous gold patterning reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics.”

In addition to the "gold" portrait, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer commissioned and owned the four other Klimts that are currently on display at LACMA.  

In 1925, tragedy struck: Adele died of meningitis. Two years earlier in her will she asked her husband to donate the Klimts to the Austrian Art Gallery in Vienna upon his death.

At the time he noted that this was not binding, but that he would abide by her request. In the meantime, Altmann noted, her uncle created a kind of shrine to his late wife at his mansion, where he had "beautiful flowers and the five paintings."

Nazi seizure
As Altmann looked at old photographs, she recalled a privileged upbringing, which included a governess, vacations in the Tyrol, trips to Paris and a debutante party at the Vienna Opera House.

It was a charmed life that would be changed forever by war.

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