FaithfulReaders may recall I have been following the story of the 1907 Klimt portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer that has been the focus of a restitution battle between the Austrian government and a niece of Mrs. Bloch-Bauer, who argued that it was seized along with four other Klimt paintings by the Nazis during World War II.
In January all five paintings were awarded to the 90 year old niece, Maria Altmann, who lives in Los Angeles.
Today it was announced that she has subsequently sold the portrait to cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder for $135 million, the highest sum ever paid for a painting.
So - here's the thing. She got the painting of her relative back after all of these years. It was an important part of her family history. And then she sells it.
I'm not getting all pious and saying I wouldn't have done the same thing, but it seems that the proper thing to do would have been to donate it to a museum. If this painting truly was a cherished family heirloom, and that was the reason to work so diligently at having it returned, I am unsettled by the quickness with which she parted with it, offering it up to the highest bidder.
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