PICTURE OF ADELE BLOCH-BAUER I, ALSO KNOWN AS “THE LADY IN GOLD”

A portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer was published in the New York Times last week. I was purchased by the cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder for the amount of $135 million for his Neue Galeries. This was the highest amount ever paid for a painting that was up for sale on June 19, 2006, making it the most expensive oil painting in the entire world. The sale lasted for a period of four months. This piece of artwork was created by the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt in 1907. It took him three years to finish it completely. It was painted for Adele Bloch-Bauer, who was the wife of the sugar industrialist Bloch Bauer. Klimt painted Adele Bloch-Bauer twice, the second time under the title portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II. Due to the fact that the artist used embossed and gilding painting techniques on canvas during the creation of this painting, it was also referred to as the Golden Adele or the Austrian Mona Lisa. The painting depicted a well-dressed and well-made young lady with blurred eyes who was surrounded by magnificent scenery. In addition to its artistic significance (the painter used a variety of innovative painting methods in it, such as mosaics), it is well-known to people due to the scandalous history of its ownership. When Adele Bloch-Bauer passed away, she expressed her desire for the painting to be given to the Austrian State Gallery. However, during World War II, the German troops who were marching on Austria took possession of the picture. During the year 1945, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who was a sugar entrepreneur, selected his nephews and nieces, including Maria Altman, as the inheritors of his inheritance. At the same time, the Austrian government gained possession of this picture. There was a lengthy legal dispute about the ownership of this picture, which ultimately resulted in the painting being restored to the Altman family in the year 2006.