Posted on 01/17/2006 9:03:47 AM PST by Cagey
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Maria Altmann fondly remembers her family's five precious Gustav Klimt paintings - as well as the bitter series of events that took them away.
As a newlywed in Austria, Altmann was forced to watch as the Nazis seized power in 1938 and then stole the possessions of her wealthy Jewish family.
She and her husband - who had been detained in the Dachau concentration camp - eventually escaped to safety in America.
"My husband was in the concentration camp and everything was taken - but material values at the time didn't matter one bit. It was only after that it did matter."
Altmann, now 89, celebrated news Monday that an Austrian arbitration court had determined that the country is legally obligated to give her family back the paintings.
The Klimt paintings have been estimated to be worth at least $150 million and are considered national treasures by Austria.
"I tell you, frankly, I had a very good feeling the last few days. I had a very positive feeling, thinking things will go all right," said Altmann, reached by telephone at her home in Los Angeles. "I'm thrilled that it came to this end."
Though the court's ruling is nonbinding, both parties have previously said they will abide by it, and Austria's government is expected to give up the works of art that have been displayed for decades in Vienna's ornate Belvedere Castle.
Altmann's attorney, E. Randol Schoenberg, said it was too early to say exactly what would happen to the paintings in light of the court's ruling. He said Altmann has four siblings - two in Vancouver, British Columbia, one in Montreal and one in Alamo, Calif. - who are also heirs with claims to the artwork.
"We're going to see how things play out now. I don't exactly know what the next step is," he said. "They're going to have to decide that collectively and they haven't made that decision yet because it's a little too early."
The case stemmed from a 1998 Austrian law that required federal museums to review their holdings for any works seized by the Nazis and determine whether they were obtained without remuneration.
A formal announcement of the court decision, and Austrian government reaction, were expected Tuesday. The paintings' return would represent the costliest concession since Austria began returning valuable art objects looted by the Nazis.
One of the disputed paintings - the oil and gold-encrusted 1907 portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" - is considered priceless. Altmann is the niece of Bloch-Bauer, who died in 1925. Her family commissioned the five works.
Lawyers for the two sides have fought since 1998 over rights to the famed portrait and four other paintings - a lesser-known Bloch-Bauer portrait as well as "Apfelbaum" ("Apple Tree"), "Buchenwald/Birkenwald ("Beech Forest/Birch Forest) and "Haeuser in Unterach am Attersee" (Houses in Unterach on Attersee Lake").
The two sides began mediation in March, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that Altmann, a retired Beverly Hills clothing boutique operator, could sue the Austrian government.
Jane Kallir, co-director of New York City's Galerie St. Etienne, which introduced Klimt to the United States in 1959, calls the 1907 portrait "literally priceless." Stylistically similar to Klimt's world-renowned "The Kiss," the painting is replicated on T-shirts, cups and other souvenirs.
Maria Altmann react to news of having her stolen painting returned, at her Los Angeles home Monday, Jan 16, 2006. An Austrian arbitration court determined the country is legally obligated to return Gustav Klimt paintings to Maria Altmann that were stolen by the Nazis, the heir of the family who owned them before the Nazis took over Austria in 1938, the Austria Press Agency reported Monday Jan. 16, 2006.(AP photo/Nick Ut)
who had been detained in the Dachau concentration camp - eventually escaped to safety in America
I just have a history question. We were told that no one escaped from the camps.
Is this just the reporters terms or does anyone know how many jews escaped from camps?
Not sure if I want to link the painting here, but it can be found at this link:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/klimt/klimt.adele-bloch-bauer.jpg
While the decision is not binding, both sides had agreed to abide by the ruling.
We'll see how long it takes Austria to do the right thing.
There were survivors in the camps when they were liberated. Perhaps that is what "escaped" means.
Stolen yesterday or stolen 75 years ago, it's still stolen.......Unless the government steals it first........
I knew of a man who repeatedly escaped and was re-captured. For whatever reason, he wasn't killed. When the Americans had arrived to free the prisoners, he was in the middle of his escape, once again. When he learned of their arrival he laughed to himself, thinking, "I almost escaped from my own liberation!"
at least two did, Rudolph Verba and another prisoner... they were the ones that first told the west about the camp.
In the early days, before the Final Solution was to be the policy, Dachau was a detention prison. People were occasionally released. Just the fact that these folks were able to get to the US shows that they had some influence likely due to their wealth and acquaintances which helped them get out.
I'm assuming the word "escaped" points to the danger they were in under a Nazi Govt
A guess.
When will that bridge-troll Maddie Dullbite return the goods her father Korbutt stole from his jewish clients?
Did she spend it all? Were all the survivors and evidence destroyed when she bombed Belgrade?
Altmann, now 89, celebrated news Monday that an Austrian arbitration court had determined that the country is legally obligated to give her family back the paintings.
Though the court's ruling is nonbinding, both parties have previously said they will abide by it, and Austria's government is expected to give up the works of art that have been displayed for decades in Vienna's ornate Belvedere Castle.
So the decision is both nonbinding and imposes a legal obligation?
Poor wording. Many survivors and were liberated by the Allies at the end of WWII.
I'd suspect it was the reporter using the wrong word to describe her liberation from Dachau.
This case isn't quite so clear cut as the writer attempts to make it, and it's more than a little disingenuous in tone. In fact, before the war the paintings belonged to Mrs. Altmann's aunt Adele. This aunt allowed her husband (Mrs. Altmann's uncle Ferdinand) to keep them after she died, on the condition that when HE departed, he'd give them to the Austrian Gallery. So the paintings were, in any case, headed to the gallery and NOT to Mrs. Altmann's walls.
Then the war happened.
So the question is not, "Did the Austrian Gallery steal the paintings after war's end?" The question is really whether or not Mrs. Altmann has been seeking to vacate the terms of her uncle's will, and repossess the paintings in violation of that will, in order (rightly, she feels) to offset costs to the family's estate as a result of Nazi thefts of OTHER properties.
You can argue it either way, but let's argue on the basis of all the facts.
Don't know where you get your information.....some escaped and many survived.
This from wikepedia
The link below provides quite a bit more history to what happened.
http://isurvived.org/InTheNews/SwissBank-Nazis.html
You guys are missing the word "detained" in the story. Couple that with the fact that it was in Dachau in the late 30's.
No one was "detained" at Auschwitz or Treblinka. Or even later in Dachau.
These folks were neither escapes nor survivors as usually understood.
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