The Lady in Gold - The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece (Anne-Marie O'Connor, 2012)

Far more interesting than anticipated.  I'm sure it helped that I've recently read quite a bit more about Austria and this historical period (most recently here and here).  This had strands of Austria in twilight of Habsburg empire, incorporation of Jews into the empire, all of the famous musicians, scientists, thinkers in Vienna c. 1900, Nazi looting of war art, concentration camps, Anschluss, etc.  Not to mention the main story lines about Klimt's art and the postwar efforts to reunite lost art works with owners or heirs.

The far-more-famous portrait (version 1)

Klimt apparently quite the personality - not of noble birth, but an obvious artistic talent that received major commissions.  He and others decided they needed to be "free" of the usual bourgeois restraints - no doubt some artistic considerations here, but some of this is just uninteresting pushing of boundaries for its own sake.    Klimt got into doing nudes; quite a bit apparently pornographic more than anything else; loved having relationships with his female models (reportedly had 14 children by them).

But Klimt was an undeniable talent.  Jews - generally accepted and successful in Viennese society notwithstanding some strong anti-Semitic strains - were more willing to sponsor non-mainstream artists like Klimt.  He did a pricey portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.  Then a second portrait years later - more realistic, far less attractive.  The author was more than willing to endlessly speculate whether Klimt had an affair with Bloch-Bauer - whatever, no one knows, who cares.  That got tiresome.

The circles these folks ran in - Gustav and Alma Mahler.  Sigmund Freud.  Arnold Schoenberg.

Hitler as making a serious attempt at becoming an artist in Vienna.  Walking the streets there at the same time as all these other folks!  Perhaps contributing to his view of the relationships of Jews and "degenerate" artists.  (Not surprisingly, the Nazis did not care for most of Klimt's work - though they did recognize the significance of Adele's portrait #1.  Couldn't display it as originally titled - a Jewess! - so just gave it a neutral name (The Lady in Gold, if I recall correctly).

#2 - more realistic.

I hadn't realized that the Ringstrasse was made possible by tearing down the old city walls (useful in repelling Turks all the way up to 1683).

The stories about Nazi looting and other depredations were effective in this book - partly because the characters and families had been introduced.  Interesting escape stories; generally bad outcomes for Jews who waited too long.  The same effect held with the moral ambiguities facing Austrians in the face of a Nazi tide - how does one react?  Wow.

As discussed in Tony Judt's work - how Austria, perhaps more than anywhere else, tried to position itself after the war as Hitler's "first victim" - deliberate amnesia.  That seems pretty understandable, also - ugh - but somehow life needed to go on.  Later generations were more willing to look into the unpleasant facts.  Kurt Waldheim, for example.

And real ambiguity about how to handle stolen artworks - should they remain on exhibition in Austria?  Or returned to heirs, somewhat distant, for resale into the private market where they end up who knows where?

Remodeling the Belvedere (built for Eugene of Savoy!) as a back-up bunker for Hitler.  Stolen artworks hidden there.

Los Angeles expats - Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Mann, Alma Mahler, Schoenberg, Billy Wilder.

Adele's portrait #1 as the center of the controversy - partly because an aging heir (sympathetic figure) residing in LA found a lawyer who pushed the case.  And to what a result!  Not resolved until around 2006.  An Estee Lauder heir as buyer.  Interesting story (with picture of the primary plaintiff (Maria)) about the purchase is here.