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Austria says it cannot afford to buy back Klimt masterpieces ($300 million dollars)
ap on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 2/2/06 | William J. Kole - ap

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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: afford; art; austria; buyback; gustavklimt; holocaust; klimt; masterpieces; theholocaust; vienna
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1 posted on 02/02/2006 8:38:52 AM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge
Geez, that's tip money on a nation scale.

Why don't they have a bake sale?

2 posted on 02/02/2006 8:40:34 AM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: NormsRevenge
...similar to Klimt's "The Kiss"...

Everyone's a critic, I know--but I don't like it.

3 posted on 02/02/2006 8:41:33 AM PST by Shalom Israel (Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Looks like the market value of "priceless national heritage" things is now more than the nation can afford.

I'm sure Los Angeles will be happy to provide a suitible place where Austrians can vist these pictures.

4 posted on 02/02/2006 8:41:34 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: Shalom Israel
Well, kiss those paintings goodbye. Ha-ha-ha...aw.
5 posted on 02/02/2006 8:42:55 AM PST by Cyclopean Squid (Moderates do not make history)
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To: NormsRevenge

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?


6 posted on 02/02/2006 8:45:36 AM PST by King Moonracer (Feudalism never ended, all hail the landed gentry.)
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To: NormsRevenge

So what does she propose to do with them? Will US estate tax apply? There are a lot of unanswered questions here.


7 posted on 02/02/2006 8:47:14 AM PST by proxy_user
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To: NormsRevenge; All
Also some pix and discussion here.
8 posted on 02/02/2006 8:47:46 AM PST by dighton
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To: Shalom Israel

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.


9 posted on 02/02/2006 8:50:06 AM PST by sine_nomine (Every baby is a blessing from God, from the moment of conception.)
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To: Shalom Israel; All
http://www.laks.com/deutsch/klimtmuseum.html - Click the image to go there.

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.

10 posted on 02/02/2006 8:51:10 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: NormsRevenge
Austria can do without these paintings, national treasure or not. The one on display on the thread is ugly. But then I don't care for modern art.....in fact, imho, it's a contradiction in terms.

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.

11 posted on 02/02/2006 8:52:12 AM PST by starfish923 (Socrates: It's never right to do wrong.)
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To: dighton

I missed that one. He liked color, that's for sure.

Thanks for the link!


12 posted on 02/02/2006 8:55:46 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: dead

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!".


13 posted on 02/02/2006 8:56:14 AM PST by Slicksadick (Go out on a limb........Its where the fruit is.)
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To: NormsRevenge; Republicanprofessor
A few I hadn't seen, thanks.

Professor, if you'd like to ping the list?

14 posted on 02/02/2006 8:56:36 AM PST by dighton
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To: starfish923
Klimt is pre modern. More Fin De Siecle. to use a musical comparison think of Mahler. His virtual exact contemporary.
15 posted on 02/02/2006 8:57:19 AM PST by Borges
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To: Slicksadick

Rodney to an female English student: "Maybe you can come over sometime and help me straighten out my Longfellow"


16 posted on 02/02/2006 8:58:28 AM PST by Borges
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To: proxy_user
So what does she propose to do with them? Will US estate tax apply? There are a lot of unanswered questions here.

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.

17 posted on 02/02/2006 8:58:41 AM PST by starfish923 (Socrates: It's never right to do wrong.)
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To: starfish923
People who don't like modern art most likely are into "realism".

Let me provide you with a "clue" ~ BUY A CAMERA!

18 posted on 02/02/2006 8:59:56 AM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: Borges
Klimt is pre modern. More Fin De Siecle. to use a musical comparison think of Mahler. His virtual exact contemporary.

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.

19 posted on 02/02/2006 9:00:37 AM PST by starfish923 (Socrates: It's never right to do wrong.)
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To: starfish923

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 :)


20 posted on 02/02/2006 9:01:10 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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