Maria Altmann

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Maria Altmann, 2010

Maria Altmann (born February 18, 1916 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary as Maria Victoria Bloch ; died February 7, 2011 in Cheviot Hills , Los Angeles ) was an American entrepreneur. In the era of National Socialism as a Jew persecuted, she emigrated to the United States. She became known as the heir to the Viennese industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer . After years of litigation it was in 2006, five paintings by Gustav Klimt passed from the possession of her uncle, until then in the Austrian Gallery in the Belvedere Palace were exhibited in Vienna, including the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I .

In 2015, the film The Woman in Gold came out, in which Maria Altmann was portrayed by Helen Mirren .

Life and family

Maria Altmann was the daughter of the lawyer Gustav Bloch-Bauer (born September 22, 1862 in Jungbunzlau , Bohemia ; died July 2, 1938 in Vienna) and his wife Therese Bauer (born May 26, 1874 in Augsburg , Bavaria ; d . 1961 in Canada ). Her paternal grandfather was the sugar industrialist David Bloch (around 1819–1892), and her maternal grandfather was the director of the Viennese bank association Moritz Bauer (1840–1905) from Buttenwiesen in Bavaria. Her father was the brother of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer and her mother was the sister of Adele Bloch-Bauer (née Bauer). Both Bloch brothers, Ferdinand and Gustav, changed their family name from Bloch to Bloch-Bauer in 1917 because all of the Bauer family's sons either remained childless or only had daughters.

Maria Altmann was nine years old when her aunt Adele died. On December 9, 1937, she married Fritz Altmann , a brother of the textile manufacturer Bernhard Altmann, in the Turnergasse synagogue in Vienna . Ferdinand Bloch's wedding present, a diamond necklace and earrings from the possession of Adele Bloch, was later stolen by the National Socialists and came into the possession of Hermann Göring's family .

After Austria was "annexed" to the National Socialist German Reich , the entire family was the target of anti-Semitic persecution. Fritz Altmann was taken to the Dachau concentration camp . Maria Altmann came to Berlin and was forced by the Gestapo to agree to the Aryanization of Bernhard Altmann's company. Fritz Altmann was released after a while, but was placed under house arrest, from which he was able to escape with Maria Altmann.

The path into exile led her via the Netherlands to Great Britain and finally to the USA. In 1942 they reached Los Angeles, where Maria Altmann lived until her death. In 1945 she received US citizenship. Maria Altmann had four children and six grandchildren. She ran a boutique in Beverly Hills until her retirement .

Restitution of the Klimt paintings

Maria Altmann's name is present in the media through the restitution of the expropriated art treasures that were formerly owned by the family and had to be left behind on the run in 1938. So far, 36 paintings have been returned to the Altmann family, 16 of which were Klimt drawings. In January 2006, Maria Altmann was made by her lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg was represented, a grandson of the composer Arnold Schoenberg , by arbitration in some cases very significant five Klimt paintings back in the family had been expropriated Nazi era. They were the paintings Adele Bloch-Bauer I , Adele Bloch-Bauer II , Apple Tree , Buchenwald / Birkenwald and Houses in Unterach am Attersee . Austria had refused to return the paintings for a long time. However, a series of articles by the Austrian journalist Hubertus Czernin in 1998 exposed the alleged property rights of the Republic of Austria as not being truthful.

  • Adele Bloch-Bauer I , 1907

  • Adele Bloch-Bauer II , 1912

  • Birch forest , 1903

  • Apple tree I , 1912

  • Houses in Unterach am Attersee , 1916

Another fate of the five Klimt pictures

Before the ruling by the arbitral tribunal, Maria Altmann did not negotiate the Klimt pictures with Maria Altmann, despite her letters and her visit to the responsible ministry. According to Federal Minister Elisabeth Gehrer , there was no legal basis for this. This formalistic attitude did not work to the advantage of Austria.

Originally, according to Maria Altmann's statements, her intention was to leave the pictures in the Austrian Belvedere Gallery , where, as Adele Bloch-Bauer requested in her will, they should have ended up after her husband's death. Austria's stubborn refusal to negotiate made Altmann change her request.

After the return of the works of art, which caused a worldwide sensation, the Austrian request for a loan was denied by their lawyer. In contrast, Maria Altmann offered the Austrian state a right of first refusal . The works of art should have an estimated price of $ 300 million, about 250 million euros.

The director of the Austrian Gallery, Gerbert Frodl , was looking for patrons who would buy the paintings and make them available to the state. However, lawyer Maria Altmanns ruled out a sale directly to sponsors. Altmann wanted the pictures to be accessible to the public even after they were sold, which is why she preferred museums or galleries as buyers. On February 2, 2006, the Federal Government Schüssel II decided not to make use of the right of first refusal granted to it. The pictures were therefore brought to Los Angeles on February 14, 2006 from the depot of the Austrian Gallery .

"Golden Adele"

In June 2006, the American entrepreneur and philanthropist Ronald S. Lauder acquired the most famous of the five paintings, Adele Bloch-Bauer I , also known as the "Golden Adele", for the Neue Galerie in Manhattan , New York, which he founded . According to the New York Times, he is said to have paid Altmann and her co-heirs $ 135 million (since it was a non-public private sale, this information cannot be verified). This would have been the highest purchase price for a painting to date.

Auction in New York

On November 8, 2006, the remaining four restituted Klimt paintings were auctioned off at one of the largest art auctions in New York by Christie's auction house in the presence of Maria Altmann. The painting Adele Bloch-Bauer II , painted by Klimt in 1912, fetched 87.936 million dollars (68.8 million euros) including surcharges. It was auctioned over the phone by an anonymous bidder. It was the fifth highest price ever paid for a painting.

Apple tree I , created in 1912, for which a competition arose between several telephone bidders, brought in 40.336 million dollars (31.6 million euros) at the auction. Buchenwald / Birkenwald , 1903, was auctioned for 33.056 million dollars (25.9 million euros). Houses in Unterach am Attersee , built around 1916, were bought by a lady in the hall for 31.376 million dollars (24.6 million euros). The buyers remained anonymous, Maria Altmann's wish that the works should be made available to the public was initially only fulfilled by Ronald Lauder, who shows the painting, albeit not permanently, in his Neue Galerie.

Restitution of their shares

The Altmann family had deposited a block of shares in the Österreichische Zuckerindustrie AG (ÖZAG) in a bank in Zurich that was not named , which under pressure from the National Socialists had to be sold to the investor Clemens Auer at a price that was far below its value. She and other heirs of the Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer and Otto Pick families received the largest single restitution from the Swiss bank settlement from the responsible New York federal judge Edward Korman, at $ 21.9 million . The so-called " Claims Resolution Tribunal " has paid out a good $ 254 million to eligible account holders.

Movie

In 2006 the documentary Die Affäre Klimt (original title: Stealing Klimt , director: Jane Chablani , screenplay: Martin Smith, production: Films of Record , Great Britain, 89:52 min.,) Appeared in contemporary witnesses such as Maria Altmann, Hubertus Czernin , Tina Walzer , Jonathan Petropoulos , Willi Korte and Randy Schoenberg have their say and draw the story of the restitution.

The drama The Woman in Gold , which was released in cinemas in 2015 , does not tell the story of Altmann and the restitution as a documentary, but in a free interpretation of history. Altmann is played by Helen Mirren in the film .

literature

Web links

items

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anne-Marie Connor: Maria Altmann dies at 94; won fight for return of Klimt portrait seized by Nazis. In: Los Angeles Times , February 8, 2011, accessed April 12, 2015.
  2. ↑ Robbed neighborhood ( Memento of the original from August 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Auction list of the Dorotheum in Vienna of the household effects of Bernhard and Nelly Altmann's villa. A project of the VHS Hietzing , 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geraubte-nachbarschaft.at
  3. ^ Stealing Klimt - filmszene.de
  4. ↑ The affair Klimt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  5. ↑ "Stealing Klimt" -Filmwebsite
personal data
SURNAME Altmann, Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-US heiress to Adele Bloch-Bauer
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 2011
Place of death los Angeles