Her inspirational life story unfolds her successful quest in reclaiming five of her family-owned paintings from government of Austria that were seized by the Nazis during Second World War. Traveling by way of Liverpool, England, they reached the United States and settled first in Fall River, Massachusetts, and finally in the wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood of Cheviot Hills. In 2006 Maria Altmann, who has died aged 94, won possession of five paintings by Gustav Klimt that had been seized by the Nazis in 1938. Update – Maria Altmann died in 2011 at the age of 94. Maria Viktoria Bloch-Bauer was born to Gustav Bloch-Bauer and Therese Bauer on February 18, 1916, in Vienna, Austria. The five Klimt paintings were sold for a total of $330.7m (£180m). The case was fought against the background of the ongoing international movement to seek reparations for the Nazi plunder of art, which consists initially of listing all works with a provenance that ends abruptly between 1933 and 1945. [13], Similarly to Woman in Gold, Laurie Lico Albanese's 2017 historical fiction novel, Stolen Beauty, tells the story of Maria Altmann and her aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer. We found 3 entries for Maria Altmann in the United States. The avant garde of the Austrian capital was a relatively tightly-knit group which included the composer Arnold Schoenberg. Share. Born in 1842 and died in 1909 Blenker, Wisconsin Maria Altmann Early life. The four additional works by Klimt were also exhibited at the Neue Gallerie for several weeks in 2006.[9]. Altmann's quiet life ended abruptly in 1998, when Czernin announced his discovery. In November 2006, Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) was sold at auction at Christie's in New York fetching almost $88 million. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer died on 13 November 1945, soon after World War II, leaving his estate to a nephew and two nieces, one of whom was Maria Altmann. In her will, Adele, who died in 1925, well before the rise of the Nazis, had asked her husband to leave the Klimts to the Austrian State Gallery upon his own death; a much-debated point in more recent years has been whether this request should or should not be considered legally binding upon her husband, who was himself the owner of the paintings. Anna Maria Fliegerbaur 1741 - Unknown. [10][11], Altmann died on February 7, 2011 at her home in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, shortly before her 95th birthday. In any event, following the Nazi Anschluss of 1938 and Ferdinand's flight from Austria, the paintings were looted, initially falling into the hands of a Nazi lawyer. Some art historians claim that if you compare the … Her proposal was not, however, treated seriously by the Austrian authorities. Obituaries appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and many other publications internationally.[5][8]. • Maria Viktoria Altmann, shop owner and litigant, born 18 February 1916; died 7 February 2011, She wrested back from Austria five Klimt masterpieces looted by the Nazis, Maria Altmann in 2005 with the recovered Klimt painting of her aunt Adele. Adele's Wish, released in 2008 by filmmaker Terrence Turner, features interviews with Altmann, Schoenberg, and leading experts from around the world. Documents of Maria Altmann (born Haas) Mary Altmann 1884 Mary Altmann in 1920 United States Federal Census. [2], She was a niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy Jewish patron of the arts who served as the model for some of Klimt's best-known paintings and who hosted a renowned Viennese salon that regularly attracted the most prominent artists of the day, including Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arthur Schnitzler, Johannes Brahms, Franz Werfel, Alma Mahler, Leo Slezak, Otto Wagner, George Minne, Karl Renner, Julius Tandler, and Klimt.[1][3][4]. Collins travels around the world speaking at various venues about their unusual relationship. Her husband died in 1994. The family name was changed to Bloch-Bauer the following year. Maria Altmann (February 18, 1916 – February 7, 2011) was an Austrian-American Jewish refugee from Austria, who fled her home country after it was occupied by the Nazis. Altmann is also portrayed in a memoir by her caregiver Gregor Collins, called The Accidental Caregiver: How I Met, Loved, and Lost Legendary Holocaust Refugee Maria Altmann. 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