Österreichische Galerie Belvedere

The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I was for a long time the centerpiece of the Austrian Galerie Belvedere. But the painting was confiscated by the nazis during the war from the jewish art collector Bloch-Bauer. Although, Adele Bloch-Bauer, in her will, asked her husband to donate the Klimt paintings to the Austrian State Gallery upon his death. After a huge juridical battle in the United States and in Austria, binding arbitration by the Austrian court established in 2006 that Maria Altmann was the rightful owner of this painting and four other paintings by Klimt. The painting was sold to Lauder in June 2006. New York's Neue Galerie is reported to have paid $135 million for the fifth looted Klimt portrait, Adele Bloch-Bauer I.

Dromos