If you haven’t seen the movie, “Woman in Gold,” I highly suggest you do so at the next opportunity. The 2015 movie, starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, tells the true story of an Austrian woman forced to fight against her homeland. Maria Altmann, a Jewish woman and native of Vienna, was forced to flee her home during the Nazi regime. Just like many other families, Maria’s family lost all of their precious belongings to the Nazi soldiers. Maria longed for one of those belongings in particular, a Gustav Klimt painting of her Aunt Adele, "Adele Bloch-Bauer I."
A quick history lesson: When Hitler rose to power, one of his goals was to create a major cultural center in Linz, Austria. To do this, he had his officers confiscate art and precious heirlooms of many Jewish families. Some of the stolen property was kept, to culturally enrich his Third Reich, and others were sold.
Nazi soldiers carrying stolen artwork.
Much of the artwork and other belongings eventually ended up in museums, just like Maria Altmann's aunt. The painting of Aunt Adele hung in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, where it had come to be known as the Woman in Gold, hence the title of the movie. To reclaim the painting, Maria Altmann needed to submit a request through a committee who decided whether or not a piece of artwork belonged to the state or to the family who originally owned it. Well, the committee decided that the painting should remain hung at the Belvedere.
There were a few problems with this decision. The first being true ownership of the painting even before the Nazis stole it. I won't tell you that part though, watch the movie to find out! Spoiler: the true owner of "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" never gifted her portrait to Austria or the Belvedere.
The next issue was the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, allowing for a law suit against a country if they held property illegally taken in the eyes of international law. The committee's decision to keep the painting in Vienna meant bad news for Austria, since "Randy" Schoenberg was able to prove the Act could be used retroactively to declare that Aunt Adele's painting had been illegally taken from the family.
The real life Altmann and Schoenberg.
The third issue, I found while reading all about the case after watching "Woman in Gold." The Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art was signed in 1998 by 44 countries, Austria included. This was about the same time that Maria started the process of reclaiming her aunt's portrait. Of course, the document was "non-binding," but it laid out several guidelines on how to handle the restitution of property taken during the Nazi regime. When reading through the list of guidelines, I couldn't help but think that Maria Altmann would have had a much easier time of reclaiming her family's artwork if the committee had more carefully considered these guidelines.
I'd like to take a moment to talk about Maria Altmann's lawyer, E. Randol Schoenberg. Maria's family was a powerful family in Vienna, and they hosted many cultural icons of their time, including Klimt and Arnold Schoenberg. If you're wondering who Arnold Schoenberg is, you're probably not alone. He was the grandfather of "Randy" and a composer best known for "Transfigured Night" and "String Quartet No. 1 in D Minor."
Arnold Schoenberg.
All of this is important because of the significance of the court case for Randy Schoenberg himself. The movie portrays his frustration at the realization that Maria's story is common to his own blood. One of my favorite moments in the movie is when he attends a performance of his grandfather's work, "Transfigured Night." The accurate representation of Schoenberg and his family history really adds a little extra something special.
In fact, the accurate representation of history is what makes "Woman in Gold" so amazing. Now, I can't promise you that every small detail of this movie is historically accurate, but from what I've found, the major plot points are all true. It can be hard to find movies which so accurately portray real-world events, so this movie was a real treat for me.
I loved everything about this movie, from the history and culture, to the importance it placed on teaching us younger generations about the tragedies of the Nazi regime. So often when we think about the Holocaust, we only think of the lives lost, but "Woman in Gold" urges us to remember both the loss of life and the loss of culture.
Wondering if Maria Altmann was ever able to reclaim her Aunt Adele's portrait? Do some research, or better yet, watch the amazing movie, "Woman in Gold."
