The Lady in Gold
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RESTITUTION
1 “RESTITUTION OF PROPERTY”: Czernin, Die Falschung, p. 262.
2 “THE ENTIRE NATION”: Ibid. See also Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos.”
3 THE KLIMT PORTRAITS OF ERICH’S SISTER: Natter and Frodl, Klimt’s Women, p. 91.
4 “BETWEEN 1938 AND 1945”: Monika Mayer, “Provenance Research at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere,” unpublished essay, presented at Sotheby’s London, Oct. 2006, p. 3.
5 ON OCTOBER 22, 1945, FERDINAND SIGNED: Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos,” p. 23.
LIBERATION
1 THE NEW COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT: Gutmann, His Trial and Death, p. 15.
2 BUT HER FATHER WASN’T THERE: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, 2006–2011.
3 THE POSTWAR SHOW TRIALS: Pamela Ballinger, History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), p. 108; John Borneman, Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the End in Political Authority (New York: Berghahn Books, 2005), p. 150; MacDonald, Balkan Holocaust?: Serbian and Croatian Victim-Centered Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2002), p. 191; Ivo Banac, With Stalin Against Tito: Cominformist Splits in Yugoslav Communism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 110.
4 “PARASITES” WHO “EXPLOITED THE WORKING CLASSES”: Nelly Auersperg, interviews.
5 “THE GERMAN WAR ECONOMY”: Viktor Gutmann, memoir.
6 THE PROSECUTOR ALSO CLAIMED: Gutmann, His Trial and Death, p. 17.
7 VIKTOR ARGUED: Ibid.
8 “GUTMANN IS ONE OF THE WORST”: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, Aug. 2006.
9 “WORKERS OF BELISCE”: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, e-mail, May 3, 2011.
10 AT THE TRAIN STATION: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, e-mail, May 3, 2011.
11 “LET’S MOVE”: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, Aug. 2006.
12 “YOU CAN GO HOME NOW”: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, Aug. 2006.
13 “GOODBYE. THANK YOU”: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, Aug. 2006.
14 VIKTOR HANDED NELLY: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, Aug. 2006.
15 “DON’T YOU KNOW”: Nelly Auersperg, interviews, Aug. 2006.
16 “DEAREST LUISE”: “To Luise, Written in the cell No. 29, on January 1, 1946, at 7 p.m., Zagreb. Baron Viktor Gutmann.” Family archives. Courtesy of Nelly Auersperg.
17 “IF YOU DON’T STOP PESTERING PEOPLE”: Gutmann, His Trial and Death, p. 19: “Don’t ask too many questions or you will find yourself in the same situation.”
18 SHE WAS CAUGHT BY A BORDER GUARD: Salomon Grimberg, interviews, May 1, 2007.
19 “THEY BURNED MY WIFE”: Ibid. Luise was arrested trying to leave the country several times. This account was given in Dallas on May 1, 2007, by her friend and confidant Dr. Salomon Grimberg, a Dallas psychiatrist and art historian who has published widely on subjects from Klimt to Frida Kahlo.
REFUGEE
1 NELLY LOVED HER NEW HOME: Nelly Auersperg, interviews.
2 “DEAREST FOE!”: Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (New York: W. W. Norton, 1966), p. 173.
3 JOHANNES HAD SPENT HIS CHILDHOOD: Johannes Auersperg, interview.
PROVENANCE
1 AS AUSTRIA EMERGED FROM THE WAR: Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos,” p. 24.
2 AUSTRIAN OFFICIALS REMAINED SILENT: Andrew Decker, “A Legacy of Shame,” ArtNews, December 1984.
3 BRUNO GRIMSCHITZ: Bruno Grimschitz, Das Belvedere in Wien (Vienna: Kunstverlag Wolfrum, 1946).
4 FÜHRER WAS SENTENCED: Lillie and Gaugusch, Portrait, p. 76. By 1965 Führer was defending convicted Belgian war criminal Robert Jan Verbelen from charges in Austria.
5 “WHO LIQUIDATED THE ASSETS”: This book, with Führer’s ex libris, was for sale at a Vienna antiquarian bookstore in 2009.
HISTORICAL AMNESIA
1 A HUNDRED THOUSAND WOMEN: Steven Beller, A Concise History of Austria (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 252.
2 AN ESTIMATED 5,500: Evan Burr Bukey, Jews and Intermarriage in Nazi Austria. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 190.
3 A 1948 AMNESTY: See Richard Breitman and Norman J. W. Goda, Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence, and the Cold War (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2010), p. 60: “Austria had roughly 700,000 Nazis when the war ended. In May 1945 Austria’s new government legally banned the Nazi organizations, prohibited former Nazis from voting and state employment, and required Nazis to register (about 524,000 did so). A War Criminals Law of June 1945 established People’s Courts throughout Austria that heard some 136,000 cases and pronounced 13,607 guilty verdicts over the next decade. The National Socialist Law of February 1947 established categories of Nazis including war criminals (including illegal Nazis from the 1933 to 1938 period), ‘incriminated’ Nazis (SS and Gestapo members for instance), and ‘less incriminated’ Nazis (about 550,000 persons), allowing them to vote. With only 2.5 million voters in Austria, this group and their families were an important voting bloc.”
4 OF SOME THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND JEWISH BUSINESSES: Ingo Zechner, interview, Oct. 2000.
5 “WHY DIDN’T YOU KEEP”: Alice Strobl, interview, Mar. 1, 2006.
6 “IN THE DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION”: Letter from Karl Garzarolli to Bruno Grimschitz, Schoenberg July 2004 Amended Complaint, Maria Altmann v. Republic of Austria and the Austrian Gallery, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, p. 19.
7 “DELAY FOR TACTICAL REASONS”: Schoenberg July 2004 Amended Complaint, p. 19.
8 “MY SKI HOLIDAY”: Gustav Rinesch, letter to Robert Bentley, Apr. 11, 1948.
9 THEY TOLD LEDERER HE WOULD HAVE TO PAY: Frodl, Secession, p. 57.
10 OTTO DEMUS HAD PERSONALLY BANNED: Lillie, Was einmal, p. 664.
11 AUSTRIAN MUSEUMS ENDED UP EXTRACTING: Frodl, Secession, p. 56.
12 DEMUS DUPLICITOUSLY ASSURED LEDERER: Lillie, Was einmal, p. 664.
13 IN 1960, FRITZ NOVOTNY: Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos,” p. 67.
14 IN 1965, WALTER FRODL: Ibid., p. 29.
15 “INTEREST IN KLIMT’S PAINTINGS”: Thomas Trenkler, “Hunting for a Bargain,” Der Standard, Feb. 4, 2010.
16 EMILE SAID HE GOT A CALL: Emile Zuckerkandl, interviews, 2006–2011.
17 LEOPOLD WROTE EMILE A CHEERY LETTER: Correspondence between Rudolf Leopold and Emile Zuckerkandl, 1955–56. Courtesy of Robert Holzbauer, the Leopold Museum.
18 FRITZ NOVOTNY HAD MOVED THE BEETHOVEN FRIEZE: Frodl, Secession, p. 57.
19 “THE FINANCIAL POSSIBILITIES”: Ibid., p. 66.
20 HE OFFERED LEDERER: Gustav Klimt, Beethovenfrieze, ed. Susanne Koppensteiner (Vienna: Secession, 2002), p. 57. The dollar figure is based on an exchange rate of 20.6 schillings to the dollar in March 1973, the month of purchase, provided by the National Bank of Austria.
THE CHILDREN OF TANTALUS
1 WHEN HE WAS A STUDENT: Kate Connolly, “Unquiet Grave for Nazi Victims,” The Guardian, Apr. 29, 2002.
2 GROSS CONTINUED TO USE THE BRAINS: Ibid.
3 LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN’S BROTHER KONRAD: Allan S. Janik and Hans Veigl, Wittgenstein in Vienna: A Biographical Excursion Through the City and Its History (Vienna and New York: Springer Verlag, 1998), p. 155.
4 EVERY MORNING, THE NEWLYWED HUBERTUS: Valerie and Hubertus Czernin, interviews, 2006.
5 HUBERTUS HAD SPENT HIS CHILDHOOD: Ibid.
6 IN THE EARLY 1970S, HE SAW: Ibid.
7 HE DISCOVERED THE THERESIANUM HAD BEEN: Ibid.
8 HIS UNIT ACCOMPANIED NAZI FORCES: Stanley Meisler, United Nations: The First Fifty Years (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995), p. 190.
9 A SECRET 1948 WAR CRIMES COMMISSION FILE: Ibid., p. 186. On p. 193 a Yugoslav commission calls him a “war criminal.”
10 “I ONLY DID MY DUTY”: “Former U.N. Secretary-General Elected President of Austria Despite Criticism of His War
time Activities,” The Independent, June 15, 2007.
11 “DOUBLE CRIME”: Elizabeth Neuffer and Walter V. Robinson, “Austria Confronts Dark Past by Combing for Nazi Links,” Boston Globe, Mar. 5, 1998.
12 “VERITABLE RACE FOR LOOTED ART”: Associated Press, “Austria Willing to Part with Misappropriated Jewish Art,” Augusta Chronicle, Mar. 12, 1998.
13 “NOBODY WANTED TO OPEN THE BOX”: Thomas Trenkler, interview, Apr. 2007.
THE HEIRS OF HISTORY
1 FRITZ NEVER LOST: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
2 IN FEBRUARY 1998: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
3 “I’M GOING TO DIE”: Maria Harris, interview, 2006.
4 “THAT,” LUISE REPLIED THOUGHTFULLY: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
5 “I WANTED TO TALK TO HER”: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
6 “DO YOU SEE THIS PICTURE?”: Randol Schoenberg, interview, Jan. 2006.
7 WHEN THE NAZIS APPROACHED PARIS: Malcolm S. Cole and Barbara M. Barclay, Armseelchen: The Life and Music of Eric Zeisl (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984), pp. 38–39.
8 ZEISL’S FATHER AND STEPMOTHER: Randol Schoenberg, interview, Sept. 14, 2011.
9 REICH’S LIST OF “DEGENERATE ARTISTS”: Milchman and Rosenberg, Postmodernism and the Holocaust, p. 93.
10 ZEISL SAID TWO THINGS HE HATED MOST: Cole and Barclay, Armseelchen, p. 5.
11 AS A TEACHER, SCHOENBERG: Allen Shawn, Arnold Schoenberg’s Journey (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002), p. 272.
12 “IS THERE ROOM IN THE WORLD”: Michael J. Bazyler and Roger P. Alford, Holocaust Restitution: Perspectives on the Litigation and Its Legacy (New York: New York University Press, 2005), p. 293; previously unpublished 1938 Schoenberg essay, published by the Arnold Schoenberg Institute of Southern California, vol. 10, no. 149, 1987.
THE LIBRARY OF THEFT
1 “NAZIS IN THE SOUP”: Dr. Jeannette R. Malkin, “Nazis in the Bernhard Soup: The Political Bernhard Revisited,” Theatre Studies Department, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
2 “JUDENFREI”: Ruth Franklin, “The Art of Extinction: The Bleak Laughter of Thomas Bernhard,” The New Yorker, Dec. 25, 2006.
3 FORMER CHANCELLOR BRUNO KREISKY: Malkin, “Nazis in the Soup.”
4 PRESIDENT KURT WALDHEIM: Die Presse, Sept. 9, 2010, Heldenplatz: Bernhards Skandalstück wieder in Wien.
5 THE BURGTHEATER EXPLODED WITH CHEERS: Franklin, “The Art of Extinction.” See also Serge Schmeman, “Along with Strudel, Demons That Don’t Die,” New York Times, Dec. 2, 1988.
6 HIS FRAGILE HEALTH COLLAPSED: His friends believe the stress may have accelerated his death three months later, by assisted suicide. Franklin, “The Art of Extinction.”
7 HUBERTUS HAD BEEN DIAGNOSED: Dr. Johannes Czernin, e-mails, May–Oct. 2011.
8 IT TURNED OUT THAT: Steven Erlanger, “Vienna Skewered as a Nazi-Era Pillager of Its Jews,” New York Times, Mar. 7, 2002.
THE SEARCH FOR PROVENANCE
1 BELVEDERE STAFF CLAIMED TO HAVE SEEN: Interviews with Belvedere staff who wish to remain anonymous, Oct. 2006.
2 “I DON’T BELIEVE HE WOULD DO SOMETHING”: Barbara Petsch, “Tug of War for Six of Consequence,” Die Presse, Mar. 11, 1998.
3 CURIOUSLY, FRODL HAD PUBLISHED: Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos,” p. 29; Gerbert Frodl, Gustav Klimt in der Österreichischen Galerie Belvedere in Wien, 2nd ed. (Salzburg: Verlag Galerie Salzburg, 1995), pp. 54, 56, 74, 80, 92.
4 “THROUGH A BEQUEST”: Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos”; Frodl, Gustav Klimt, pp. 54, 56.
5 “WE KNEW A LOT”: Associated Press, “Austria Willing to Part with Misappropriated Art,” Mar. 11, 1998.
6 “MAYBE YOU DO UNDERSTAND”: E-mail from Hubertus Czernin to Randol Schoenberg, Dec. 29, 1998.
7 WHEN THE TAXI STOPPED: Maria Altmann, interview, 2001.
8 HER GESTAPO MINDER, FELIX LANDAU: Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos,” p. 14.
9 “THIS IS MY AUNT!”: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
10 MARIA WOULD LATER TESTIFY: Deposition of Maria Altmann, May 29, 2002; Maria Altmann v. the Republic of Austria and the Austrian Gallery, an agency of the republic of Austria; United States District Court for the Central District of California.
11 “IN THE OLD VIENNA”: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
12 “TO HAVE ARGUED THAT FERDINAND”: Los Angeles Times, June 30, 1999.
13 “I AM HORRIFIED”: E-mail from Nelly Auersperg to Randol Schoenberg, copy sent to Maria Altmann.
“I CAN’T AFFORD FOR YOU TO LOSE”
1 BUT THE AUSTRIANS DEMANDED $1.8 MILLION: Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos.”
2 “RANDY, I CAN’T AFFORD FOR YOU TO LOSE”: Randol Schoenberg, interviews.
3 RANDOL WAS DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED: Randol Schoenberg, interviews.
4 “I SEE THIS AS PART”: Testimony of Ronald S. Lauder, then chairman of the Commission for Art Recovery of the World Jewish Congress, before the U.S. House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Feb. 10, 2000.
5 “BOND OF HALF A MILLION DOLLARS”: Ibid.
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA?
1 TOMAN, A BALD, BEARDED MAN: Gottfried Toman, interviews Oct. 31, 2006.
2 TOMAN WAS ENTRANCED: Gottfried Toman, interviews Oct. 31, 2006.
3 TOMAN WAS CHARMED BY MARIA: Gottfried Toman, interviews, May 2007.
KLIMT’S STOLEN WOMEN
1 “THE FIGURE’S BEDROOM EYES”: Leo A. Lensing, “Letter from Vienna,” Times Literary Supplement, Jan. 19, 2001.
2 “GANGSTER’S MOLL, PARADING AROUND”: Ibid.
3 “MEN OF HONOR”: Andrew Purvis and Angela Leuker, “Jörg Haider’s New Clothes,” Time, Apr. 10, 2005.
4 “THERE MUST BE AN END”: John Authers and Richard Wolffe, The Victim’s Fortune (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), p. 319.
5 “NOT A CENT MORE”: Ibid., p. 312.
6 “IT IS UNACCEPTABLE”: Kate Connolly, “Haider Embraces SS Veterans,” The Guardian, Oct. 2, 2000.
7 “THE FIRST VICTIM OF THE NAZI REGIME”: Jeff Barak, interview with Wolfgang Schüssel, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 10, 2000.
8 “SUBSTANTIAL AND NON-FRIVOLOUS CLAIM”: “Order Denying Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss,” United States District Court, Central District of California, CV 008913, filed May 4, 2001.
A LOST CAUSE CÉLÈBRE
1 “HELLO, MY LOVE!”: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
2 “SHE AND MY MOTHER WERE SO DIFFERENT”: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
3 “I WAS A TIMID LITTLE GIRL”: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
4 “THEY SAY NOW AUSTRIA WAS A VICTIM”: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.
5 “CRAZY NAZI PROPAGANDIST”: Randol Schoenberg, interview, 2001.
DIPLOMACY
1 “HE’S HERE TO SAVE THE GOLD!”: Heard at a reception of consuls of Los Angeles at the home of Swedish consuls Andreas and Anita Ekman, 2001.
2 “THE JEWISH RESIDENTS BROUGHT”: Interview with Ambassador Peter Moser. All subsequent quotations from Moser in this chapter come from this interview, 2001.
FAMILY HISTORY
1 “OH, PETER MOSER”: Maria Altmann, interviews. All subsequent quotations from Maria Altmann in this chapter come from these interviews, 2001.
2 “WE [MADE THE CONTRIBUTION]”: Charles Goldstein, e-mail, June 17, 2010.
3 KEEP GOING, PAM TOLD HIM: Pamela Schoenberg, interview, Sept. 2007.
4 “THE FIRST TIME IN HOLOCAUST REPARATIONS”: Henry Weinstein, “Klimt Art Suit May Proceed,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 13, 2002.
5 “I WANT THOSE PAINTINGS”: Ibid.
SUPREME JUDGMENT
1 “I THINK THE PLAINTIFFS”: Anne-Marie O’Connor, “A Portrait of Perseverance,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5, 2004.
2 “YOU CAN’T JUST HAVE RANDY”: Maria Altmann, interviews, 2004.
3 “EXPERIENCED LITIGATOR”: Bert Fields, phone interview, May 11, 2010.
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4 “THE QUESTION IS ONE”: David Pike, “Court Likely Will Reverse Art Case,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, Feb. 26, 2004.
5 “I DON’T KNOW IF WE PROTECT”: Ibid.
6 “WHY DID YOU WRITE THIS?”: Randol Schoenberg, interviews.
7 “I’VE BEEN REPORTING ON THE SUPREME COURT”: Randol Schoenberg, interviews.
8 “EXPROPRIATION EXCEPTION”: Henry Weinstein, “Austria Can Be Tried in U.S. Courts over Nazi-Seized Paintings,” Los Angeles Times, June 8, 2004.
9 “IN 1946 AUSTRIA ENACTED”: Republic of Austria et al. v. Altmann, Certiori to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Argued Feb. 24, 2004, Decided June 7, 2004.
ARBITRATION
1 “YOU’RE CRAZY”: Randol Schoenberg and Maria Altmann, interviews, 2006.
2 “I HOPE HE WASN’T A MEMBER”: Randol Schoenberg, interview, e-mail, Jan. 29, 2009.
3 THE PANELISTS HAD CONCLUDED: Austria arbitration decision, Jan. 2006, p. 20.
4 “MERE REQUEST”: Ibid., p. 21.
5 THEY DISCARDED AS “FAR-FETCHED”: Ibid., p. 19.
6 “THE PARTIES INVOLVED IN ACTS OF SEIZURE”: Ibid., p. 25.
7 “SIMPLY EXTORTED”: Ibid., p. 24.
8 “USED THE PAINTINGS AS WEAPONS”: Ibid., pp. 43–44.
9 RANDOL SECOND-GUESSED HIMSELF: Randol Schoenberg, interview, Jan. 2006.
10 “I LET OUT A WHOPPING YELL”: On-site reporting, Los Angeles, Jan. 2006.
11 “I HAVE A POSSIBLE BUYER”: On-site reporting, Los Angeles, Jan. 2006.
12 “YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MANY CALLS”: On-site reporting, Los Angeles, Jan. 2006.
13 “MY DADDY WON”: On-site reporting, Los Angeles, Jan. 2006.
14 “DADDY! MY FRIENDS SAY”: On-site reporting, Los Angeles, Jan. 2006.
15 “THERE’S NOT GOING TO”: Randol Schoenberg, interview, Los Angeles, Jan. 2006.
16 “I WOULD NOT WANT”: Diane Haithman and Christopher Reynolds, “Court Awards Nazi-Looted Artworks to L.A. Woman,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 17, 2006.
17 “THIS IS A FAIRY-TALE STORY”: Speech delivered by Peter Altmann at celebratory dinner at Spago, Jan. 9, 2006.
18 “THE AVAILABILITY OF THE BLOCH-BAUER KLIMTS”: Letter from Christie’s chairman Stephen S. Lash to Randol Schoenberg, Feb. 9, 2006.