Everyone's a critic, I know--but I don't like it.
Posted on 02/02/2006 8:38:49 AM PST by NormsRevenge
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Austria's government said Thursday it cannot afford to buy back five Gustav Klimt paintings that a court has ordered returned to a California woman who says the Nazis stole them from her Jewish family.
Elisabeth Gehrer, Austria's minister in charge of education and culture, said the government wanted to acquire the masterpieces but decided it could not afford the $300 million pricetag. Last month, an arbitration court awarded the paintings to Maria Altmann of Los Angeles, who says they were looted from her family by the Nazis.
"Therefore the paintings are immediately available for her to inherit," Gehrer said in statement. She said the government's Council of Ministers could not find the cash in its budget to keep the paintings in Austria, where they are widely considered to be national treasures.
Gehrer said the government would inform Altmann's attorneys that it has no more interest in negotiating a purchase.
"We're simply unable" to buy the paintings, Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said. "Further negotiations are pointless."
Gehrer had proposed after the Jan. 16 court ruling that Austria be allowed to continue displaying at least two of the best-known works as national treasures. Even then, however, she acknowledged that there was not enough money to buy them and Austria was obligated to return them under laws mandating the restitution of art objects to Holocaust victims.
Altmann, 89, a retired Beverly Hills clothing boutique operator, was one of the heirs of the family that owned the paintings before the Nazis took over Austria in 1938.
Although she waged a seven-year legal battle to recover them, she had also made clear that she preferred the works to remain on public display rather than disappear into a private collection.
Austria's decision to give up the artworks that have been displayed for decades in Vienna's ornate Belvedere castle represents the costliest concession since it began returning valuable art objects looted by the Nazis.
Among the works is "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," which is stylistically similar to Klimt's world-renowned "The Kiss" and has been widely replicated on T-shirts, cups and other souvenirs.
Austria considers the paintings part of its national heritage. Klimt was a founder of the Vienna Secession art movement that for many became synonymous with Jugendstil, the German and central European version of Art Nouveau.
Altmann is the niece of Bloch-Bauer, who died in 1925. The subject's family commissioned her famous portrait and owned it, along with the four other Klimt paintings disputed in the case.
After Bloch-Bauer died, the paintings remained in her family's possession. Her husband fled to Switzerland after the Nazis took over Austria. The Nazis then took the paintings and the Belvedere gallery was made the formal owner.
Austria was among the most fervent supporters of Adolf Hitler. Vienna was home to a vibrant Jewish community of some 200,000 before World War II; today, it numbers about 7,000.
The country has also begun paying compensation to Nazi victims from a $210 million fund endowed by the federal government, the city of Vienna and Austrian industries.
Why don't they have a bake sale?
Everyone's a critic, I know--but I don't like it.
I'm sure Los Angeles will be happy to provide a suitible place where Austrians can vist these pictures.
So Austria, did not like it when Arnold let convicted multi-murderer Tookie fry, but has fought to keep loot obtained by the Nazis. Nice. Is Howard Dean Austrian too?
So what does she propose to do with them? Will US estate tax apply? There are a lot of unanswered questions here.
As someone said about the film "35mm," NO LEICA.
I think the price for paintings has gone crazy. The same amount on books would create a vast library of treasures.
My advice - frame some nice prints in place of the originals. Most won't know the difference.
Gustav Klimt
1862-1918
Here's a pile of women thru Klimt eyes and hands
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~dbi9m/klimt/Women.html, there are some landscape and drawings pick links there as well.
Austria has Mozart. He's much better and TRULY a national treasure.
This is Mozart's 250th birthday, plus a few days. I'll be in Austria this summer to hear the concerts which will celebrate this master's works.
I missed that one. He liked color, that's for sure.
Thanks for the link!
From "Back to School"
Guy At Party Admiring A Painting:"Your wife was just showing me her Klimt". Dangerfield:"Yeah... She's showing it to everyone!".
Professor, if you'd like to ping the list?
Rodney to an female English student: "Maybe you can come over sometime and help me straighten out my Longfellow"
I don't think she cares about the paintings or the money. I think it was making Austria publically acknowledge that they belonged to her family because they were stolen by the nazis. That it happened almost three generations ago wasn't the point....for her it was "yesterday."
As for taxes, I would imagine that she has an ARMY of tax lawyers who will manage to let her pay $0.00 taxes for these "national treasures" worth $300,000,000.00
She's wealthy, 88-years-old and still working a most profitable business. Lol. She probably could do all her own taxes, without looking at a single worksheet. Good for her.
Let me provide you with a "clue" ~ BUY A CAMERA!
I know because I CAN read dates.
For ME he is "modern."
I don't even like too many of the impressionists. A little impressionism goes a long way.
Sounds like a good time. I have never been on the European continent, that would definitely be on the itinerary if I ever make it there. That and Czechoslovakia. I have some bohemian in me on my dad's side. ;-)
Bohunk Power :)
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