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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: April 5, 2006 |
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Maria Altman welcomed back to her family on Tuesday the original portrait of her aunt painted by Gustav Klimt, nearly 70 years after the painting was ripped off Altman's childhood home in Austria during a Nazi campaign to loot wealthy Jewish families.
The oil and gold-encrusted portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, along with four other Klimt paintings that include another colorful portrait of Bloch-Bauer and three landscapes were unveiled in a ceremony at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The works will be on display until June 30.
Until the portrait's return on Tuesday, Altmann, now 90, had hung a framed poster of her aunt as a substitute for the original painting.
"To see them here is a dream come true," Altmann said with a smile as she sat in an exhibit room surrounded by the paintings. "Los Angeles has been my hometown for so long, so to have them here is beyond words. I'm going to come here very often and bring friends to see them."
Their arrival capped Altmann's seven-year legal battle to recover her family's possession, estimated to be worth $300 million.
Altmann was a 21-year-old newlywed when she watched the Nazis seize power in 1938 and then steal valuables from her family, including her wedding gifts and the paintings that belonged to her aunt and uncle.
She said she did not think much about the material loss at the time, because her husband was detained in the Dachau concentration camp. The couple eventually escaped to safety and resettled in Los Angeles in 1942, where she ran a clothing boutique.
Meanwhile, the Austrian Gallery Belvedere in Vienna was made the formal owner of the paintings.
Altmann believed for many years that little could be done to recover the paintings, but her hopes were revived in 1998 when a new Austrian law required museums to return valuable art objects looted by the Nazis.
With the help of attorney E. Randol Schoenberg, Altmann sued for rightful ownership of the paintings. Attorneys for Austria argued that her aunt, who died in 1925, had specified that they be donated to the government gallery.
The case worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2004 that Altmann could sue the Austrian government. The two sides began mediation and Austrian authorities agreed in January to return the paintings after an arbitration court ruled they must be returned to her.
Despite the lengthy struggle, Altmann said she has no ill feelings toward Austria and praised members of the arbitration court for their "courage and honesty" in voting unanimously in her favor.
"I was very angry with what happened. But now that we have resolved it, I try to see the good side of it," she said.
Displaying her sharp memory, Altmann giggled when asked about the poster that she says will remain in her living room.
"It was given to me from what they called a boyfriend then, not what they call a boyfriend now," she said with a slight Austrian accent. "He didn't even give me a kiss, but my mother was furious when she found out about him. |
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