The Lady in Gold

by Anne-marie O'connor

  CIAO ADELE

  1 AFTER A MAN THREATENED TO DEFACE: Diane Haithman, “Threat Spurs Removal of Painting,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 21, 2006.

  2 “THEY WEREN’T AFRAID”: Randol Schoenberg, reporting, Feb. 26, 2006.

  3 “THIS STUFF IS EVERYWHERE!”: Randol Schoenberg, reporting, Feb. 26, 2006.

  4 THEY CALLED FOR AUSTRIA: “Austria Won’t Buy Art Awarded to LA Heir,” Associated Press, Feb. 3, 2006.

  5 “YOU’VE BEEN A HUGE INSPIRATION”: On-site reporting, Feb. 26, 2006.

  6 “RIDICULOUS!”: On-site reporting, Feb. 26, 2006.

  7 “I THINK THE CLIMATE”: On-site reporting, Feb. 26, 2006.

  A FRIEND FROM OLD VIENNA

  1 RANDOL ANNOUNCED HE WAS HEADING OFF: Randol Schoenberg, interview, Vienna, Feb., 2006.

  2 “I WAS DRAFTED”: Hans Mühlbacher, Zwischen Technik und Musik (Vienna: Edicion Atelier, 2003).

  3 “MANY PRETTY GIRLS”: Ibid., p. 126.

  4 “SOME OF THE SOLDIERS WERE SORRY”: Ibid., p. 142.

  5 HE WAS AN SS OFFICER: Herbert Alois Wagner FBI File 105-10525. FBI HQ: Investigative Reports; Classified Subject Files. Released under the Nazi and Japanese War Crimes Disclosure Acts. Classification 105: Foreign Counterintelligence. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.

  6 HE AND HIS TWO ASSISTANTS: Linda Hunt, Secret Agenda (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), pp. 6–7.

  7 HANS’S STORYBOOK HOMETOWN: “Von Juden und Nationalsozialisten in St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut,” One Journal, June 12, 2010, www.salai.at/article/lokales/stwolfgang/17274.

  8 THE SS ORDERED HANS: Guy B. Adams and Danny L. Balfour, Unmasking Administrative Evil (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2009).

  9 PEOPLE WHO HAD SEEN AIR RAID SHELTERS COLLAPSE: Graziella Hlawaty and Pamela S. Sauer, Broken Songs: An Adolescent in War-Torn Vienna (Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, 2005), p. 180.

  10 HANS SHOWED ME: Herbert Wagner, His Work and Life, Documents (Bonn: Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V.; Deutsches Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 1990), p. 10.

  PATRIMONY

  1 “I WAS A BIT HURT”: Randol Schoenberg, interview, Jan. 8, 2007.

  2 RANDOL FOLLOWED THE ADMINISTRATOR: Randol Schoenberg, interview, Jan. 8, 2007.

  3 RANDOL LIFTED UP: Randol Schoenberg, interview Jan. 8, 2007.

  4 THE BABY IN THE PAINTING, GEORG: Arnold Greissle-Schönberg and Nancy Bogen, Arnold Schönberg’s European Family, e-book, www.schoenbergseuropeanfamily.org, chap. 4.

  5 “THE ERA HAS BEEN SO WIDELY CELEBRATED”: Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, speech at premiere of Raul Ruiz’s film Klimt, Mar. 1, 2006.

  6 “MYTHICAL CITY”: Ibid.

  7 “WE HAVE FERDINAND TO THE LEFT”: Randol Schoenberg, reporting at the scene, Mar. 1, 2006.

  8 “I DIDN’T TELL ANYONE”: Suzanne Biro, author reporting at the scene, Mar. 1, 2006.

  9 “I THOUGHT THERE WAS NO CHANCE”: Randol Schoenberg, author reporting at the scene, Mar. 1, 2006.

  10 THE FAMILY OF THE WALTZ KING: Elaine Dutka, “Vienna Buys Back Strauss Memorabilia,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 2, 2002. See also Michael J. Bazyler, Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in America’s Courts (New York: New York University Press, 2003), p. 244.

  11 “IN THE END WE GAVE IT ALL BACK”: Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, author reporting at the scene, Mar. 1, 2006. Mailath-Pokorny was then City Councillor for Cultural Affairs and Science of the City of Vienna.

  12 “AND WITHIN AUSTRIA”: Author reporting at the scene, Mar. 1, 2006.

  13 “JOURNALISTS KEEP ASKING ME”: John Malkovich, interview, Mar. 1, 2006.

  14 “IT IS SOMETHING”: Alice Strobl, interview, Mar. 1, 2006.

  15 “THE NAZIS MADE EVERYONE WORK”: Alice Strobl, interview, Mar. 1, 2006.

  16 “BASICALLY, THE GOVERNMENT”: John Sailer, interview, Nov. 2, 2006.

  17 “MY GUT FEELING”: John Sailer, interview, Nov. 2, 2006.

  18 “MAYBE YOU CAN CHANGE [RANDOL’S] MIND”: Elisabeth Sturm-Bednarczyk, interview, Mar. 2, 2006. Subsequent quotations are also from this interview.

  ADELE’S FINAL DESTINY

  1 “IT WAS A VERY SIGNIFICANT OFFER”: Tyler Green, “ ‘This Is Our Mona Lisa,’ ” Fortune, Sept. 28, 2006.

  2 “THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENT”: Christie’s letter, Feb. 9, 2006.

  3 “OH MY DARLING”: Maria Altmann, interview, Spring 2006.

  4 “I’VE LOST SO MUCH WEIGHT”: Hubertus Czernin, telephone interview, May 20, 2006.

  5 “IT BECAME CLEAR”: Green, “ ‘This Is Our Mona Lisa.’ ”

  6 “IT’S PRETTY HARD TO BE”: Ibid.

  7 DAYS BEFORE THE GOLD PORTRAIT: Lawsuit, Randol Schoenberg, filed June 30, 2006, in the U.S. Court of the Central District of California. It was docketed July 10, 2006.

  8 “I REFUSED TO PAY”: Nelly Auersperg, telephone interview, May 18, 2011.

  9 “THE MISUNDERSTANDING WAS RESOLVED”: Steve Thomas, e-mail, May 17, 2011.

  10 THE GOLD PORTRAIT WAS CAREFULLY PACKED: Green, “ ‘This Is Our Mona Lisa.’ ”

  11 RON LAUDER WAS ANXIOUSLY PACING: Ibid.

  12 “IN MANY WAYS”: Ron Lauder, press preview, July 12, 2006. Subsequent quotations from Lauder also from the press preview.

  THE BURDEN OF HISTORY

  1 “ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE”: Malteser Kreuz Zeitung des Soveranem Ritter-Ordens Member Chapter of the Grand Priory of Austria Franz Karl Auersperg; Franz Karl von Auersperg biography on website www.malteserkreuz.org.

  2 “INSIDE THE GOLDEN FRAME”: Marisa Harris, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 2006.

  3 “I HAVE A FEELING KLIMT WAS INTERESTED”: Nelly Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  4 “SHE WAS A DRAWING-ROOM SOCIALIST”: Johannes Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  5 “I WOULD PREFER”: Nelly Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  6 “HE’S GOING TO MAKE NINETY-SIX MILLION DOLLARS”: Johannes Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  7 “ ‘MY SKI HOLIDAY’ ”: Johannes Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  8 “LUISE LOVED KLIMT PAINTINGS”: Nelly Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  9 “IT WAS TIT FOR TAT”: Johannes Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  10 “WE THOUGHT THE NAZIS WERE GONE”: Nelly Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  11 JOHN STARTED TO SAY SOMETHING: Johannes Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  12 “THEY WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO SHOOT HIM YET”: Nelly Auersperg, interview, Vancouver, Aug. 3, 2006.

  ART HISTORY

  1 “THE MUSEUMS HELPED THEMSELVES”: Baroness Marianne Kirstein-Jacobs, interview, Vienna, May 7, 2007. Subsequent quotes are from this interview.

  2 “ADELE WAS AN EXTRAORDINARY PERSON”: Gottfried Toman, interview, Oct. 2007. Subsequent quotes from Toman are from this interview.

  3 “IT STIRS UP A LOT OF THINGS”: Felicitas Kunth, provenance director of the Dorotheum, interview, Oct. 2006.

  4 “MY OLDEST FRIEND”: Sophie Lillie, interview, Apr. 2006.

  5 “YOU GREW UP NOT KNOWING”: Ruth Pleyer, interview, Apr. 16, 2007.

  6 “HE REALIZED HE COULD”: Stanislaus Bachofen-Echt, interview, Vienna Nov. 5, 2006. Subsequent quotations are also from interviews in Apr. 2007.

  7 A YELLOWING U.S. MILITARY FORM: Certificate of Discharge, Aug. 29, 1946, signed by Dr. Lardschneider and approved by an Allied Discharging Officer (name illegible), Vienna State Archives.

  8 “WE HAD SOME NAZIS IN THE FAMILY”: Franz Josef Czernin, interview, Vienna. Subsequent quotations are from this interview, May 2007.

  9 THERE TURNED OUT TO BE PLENTY: Christopher Simpson, ed., War Crimes of the Deutsche Bank and the Dresdner Bank: Office of Military Government (U.S) Reports (New York: Holmes & Meier, 2002), pp. 308, 342, 351. Also: Johannes Bahr, Die Dresdner Bank in der Wirtschaft des Dritten Reichs (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2006), p. 602.

  10 STEI
NHOF HOSPITAL: Francis Nicosia and Jonathan Huener, Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany: Origins, Practices, Legacies (New York: Berghahn Books, 2002), pp. 101–4. Also: Marius Turda and Paul Weindling, “Blood and Homeland”: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900–1940 (New York: Central European University Press, 2006), p. 329; Debra Martens, “Unfit to Live,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, Sept. 14, 2004, pp. 619–20.

  11 BUT NEW NAZI-ERA ARCHIVES: Kate Connolly, “Unquiet Grave for Nazi Victims,” The Guardian, Apr. 29, 2002.

  12 “A PERPETRATOR WHO CALLED HIMSELF”: Renate Göllner, “Ich war gar nicht eingeheit,” Konkret, Oct. 2008. Additional sources on scrutiny of Caruso: Bettina Reiter, “Es waren doch Gutachten,” Die Presse, May 9, 2008; Eveline List, “ ‘Warum nicht in Kischniew?’ Zu einem autobiographischen Tondokument Igor Caruso,” Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalytische Theorie und Praxis 33, no. 1 (2008): 117–41.

  13 ONE CURATOR SAID IT HAD BEEN: Telephone interview with Dr. Georg Lechner, the curator of the Baroque, Belvedere Museum, July 20, 2010. On the Belvedere bunker as a potential refuge for Hitler and Nazi leadership, see also Simone Fässler, Von Wien her, auf Wien hin: Ilse Aichingers “Geographie der eigenen Existenz” (Vienna: Böhlau, 2011).

  14 BUT HITLER BUILT: Franz Wilhelm Seidler and Dieter Ziegert, Hitler’s Secret Headquarters: The Führer’s Wartime Bases from the Invasion of France to the Berlin Bunker (Bamsley, UK: Greenhill Books, 2006).

  15 HIS BOOK SHOWS HITLER PRESIDING OVER: Aurenhammer and Aurenhammer, Das Belvedere, p. 126, photo.

  16 IN THOSE DAYS: Ibid., p. 36.

  17 “VIENNA WAS NO LONGER FAR FROM THE COMBAT ZONE”: Ibid.

  18 “THE PROTEST OF THE GALLERY’S MANAGEMENT”: Ibid.

  19 “FÜHRER HEADQUARTERS”: Das Museum. Spiegel und Motor kulturalpolitischer Visionen (The Museum: Mirror and Motivator of Cultural-Political Visions 1903–2003), ed. Hadwig Krautler and Gerbert Frodl (Vienna: Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, 2003), p. 72.

  20 “PLEASE NOTE WHAT THE BELVEDERE”: E-mail from Lena Maurer, Belvedere press spokeswoman, Nov. 9, 2009.

  CULTURAL PROPERTY

  1 PLASTER MOLDINGS AND ORNAMENTATION: Stefan Gulner, interviews, Apr. 2007.

  2 “JÜDISCHE?”: Interview at the Zentral Friedhof, Nov. 1, 2006.

  3 “MY GRANDMOTHER WAS ONE OF HIS MODELS”: Gustav Zimmermann, interview at the Hietzing Friedhof, Nov. 1, 2006; subsequent quotations from interviews Apr.–May 2007.

  A RECKONING

  1 “THE CURSE OF THE KLIMTS”: Maria Altmann, interview, 2006.

  2 “NELLY AND I USED TO BE”: Maria Altmann, interview, 2006.

  3 NELLY WANTED TO DONATE: Maria Harris, Maria Altmann, interviews, 2006; multiple e-mail exchanges with Nelly Auersperg.

  4 “HOW SAD—IF UNSURPRISING”: Michael Kimmelman, “Klimts Go to Market; Museums Hold Their Breath,” New York Times, Sept. 19, 2006.

  5 “THIS WAS OUR AUSTRIAN MONA LISA”: Werner Fürnsinn, interview, Vienna, Sept. 2006.

  6 “WE LENT THEM THOSE PAINTINGS”: Maria Altmann, interview, Sept. 2006.

  7 “HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME”: Letter from Maria Altmann to Nelly Auersperg, read to author, Sept. 7, 2007.

  8 “MY MOTHER NEVER WANTED TO DIG UP”: Maria Harris, interview.

  9 “MRS. ALTMANN, CONGRATULATIONS”: Press conference prior to the Christie’s auction, Nov. 8, 2006.

  10 RONALD LAUDER SHOWED MARIA: Maria Altmann, interview, Dec. 2006.

  11 “DO I HEAR $12 MILLION?”: On-site reporting at the Christie’s auction, Nov. 8, 2006.

  12 “MY AUNT ADELE AND UNCLE FERDINAND”: Christie’s press statement, Nov. 8, 2006.

  13 “WE WERE LUCKY”: Reporting at the event, Nov. 8, 2006.

  14 “DID ADELE’S PORTRAIT GO TO THAT MAN”: Maria Altmann, interview, Dec. 2006.

  15 “THE FATE OF THE KLIMT PAINTINGS”: Nelly Auersperg, correspondence with the author, Jan. 31, 2009.

  16 “I DON’T WANT TO ASK NELLY”: Maria Altmann, interview.

  17 RESTITUTION CASES WERE NOW JUDGED: Stuart Eizenstat, Imperfect Justice (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), p. 352.

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