JHMOMC

Why Maria Altmann fought for the ‘Woman in Gold’

Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann never wanted a fight.

In fact, she never wanted Gustav Klimt’s celebrated portrait of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, to leave Austria, the country Altmann had escaped during the Holocaust.

Altmann told me so in no uncertain terms in 2004, as we sat in her Los Angeles living room near a reproduction of the painting at the center of “Woman in Gold,” a new film about Altmann’s yearslong struggle to reclaim her family’s Nazi-looted property.

But the Austrian government fought Altmann every step of the way, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and for years beyond. For Austrian officials didn’t simply want to keep the family’s art inside Austria for future generations to cherish. No, the Austrian government vigorously disputed Altmann’s ownership of “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” and several other Klimt works, valued at approximately $150 million, while denying the Holocaust underpinnings of this case.

The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County presents:

“Dreaming of a Mid-Summer’s Eve Concert” featuring the works of three popular American Masters of the stage, concert hall, and film.

George Gershwin. Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Paul Schoenfield.

To be performed by the Bravura Chamber Ensemble under the direction of Chiu-Tze Lin.

Sunday, June 28, 2015 at 4 PM.

$18 for members, $20 for non-members, and $10 for students.

The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is located at 310 Mounts Corner Drive in Freehold, NJ 07728.

Reservations are non-refundable..