Farewell, Adele
Maria Altman has sold the painting of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, by Gustav Klimpt, to the Neue Gallery, a New York Gallery dedicated to Austrian decorative arts sponsored by cosmetics mogul, Ronald Lauder. He calls it their Mona Lisa, and calls it a "once in a lifetime acquisition." The painting was sold at Sotheby's for 135 million dollars, the most paid for a painting ever. It is believed that LACMA had offered the same price for all five of the paintings Maria Altman recovered from Austria earlier this year. It's too bad that she decided to break up the collection which once hung in the home of her uncle, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who commissioned them from Klimpt, Austria's most well known fin de siecle painter.
Before the paintings were returned to Maria Altman, Vienna hung the city in representations of the portrait, with the words, "Farewell, Adele" inscribed underneath. She was leaving the city of her birth forever. Soon, her brief visit to Los Angeles will be over, but you can still see her at LACMA until the end of the month.
LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
posted by kuaptic. @ 8:28 AM
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