1898 1903 1908 Adele Bauer and Ferdinand Adele sends a letter to her brother Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I Bloch meet at the wedding of Julius Bauer in August mentioning is exhibited at Vienna’s Therese Bauer (Adele’s sister) and that Klimt has agreed to paint her “Kunstschau.” Critical reaction is Gustav Bloch (Ferdinand’s brother). portrait. both favorable—“an idol in a golden shrine”—and less so, with one critic 1899 Klimt begins work on the portrait of deriding it as “more brass than Adele Bauer and Ferdinand Bloch Adele Bloch-Bauer in the winter. In Bloch.” become engaged. December, he visits the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, where he 1912 On December 19, Adele Bauer and sees the sixth-century Byzantine Klimt begins work on a second com- Ferdinand Bloch marry in Vienna’s mosaics of Justinian and Theodora. missioned portrait of Adele Bloch- Stadt Temple, in a wedding that Bauer. reinforces ties between two of 1906 Vienna’s most prominent Jewish Adele and Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer 1913 families. purchase sixteen Klimt drawings Klimt publicly displays the second from the Galerie Miethke, some of portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer at the which are preparatory sketches for “Eleventh International Exhibition of 1901 Klimt’s first portrait of Adele. Art in Munich.” Klimt’s Judith I is publicly dis- played. Some scholars believe that 1907 1916 Adele Bloch-Bauer was the model Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I Maria Viktoria Bloch-Bauer (later for this work. is exhibited at the “Mannheim Maria Altmann), niece of Adele, born International Art Show.” to Therese and Gustav Bloch-Bauer.

1917 1923 1934 Klimt makes reference to the Bloch- In her final will, Adele asks Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer lends the Bauers in his last diary. Ferdinand Ferdinand to make donations on her Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I to and Adele Bloch-Bauer legally join behalf to various charities. She also the “Austria in London” exhibition their names to ensure preservation writes: “I ask my husband, after his of both family names. death, to leave my two portraits and the four landscapes by Gustav Klimt 1936 1918 to the Austrian Gallery in Vienna.” Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer donates Klimt suffers a stroke and dies at Klimt’s Kammer Castle on the age fifty-five in early February. Ferdinand, who is the owner of these Attersee III to the Belvedere. paintings, expresses a desire to fulfill 1919 her request. 1937 Six Bloch-Bauer Klimt paintings are Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is loaned to Vienna’s Moderne Galerie 1925 exhibited at the Paris World Expo- (later known as the Austrian National Adele Bloch-Bauer slips into a coma sition. Gallery and today as the Belvedere). and dies of meningitis at age forty- three. Her bedroom at their home On December 9, Maria Bloch-Bauer 1920 in Vienna, with the six Klimt paint- marries Fritz Altmann. Ferdinand Adele and Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer ings, is preserved as a shrine to her gives Adele’s diamond necklace move to a townhouse at memory. with matching earrings to his niece Elisabethstrasse 18 in Vienna’s Maria as a wedding present. It is first district. 1928 confiscated by the Gestapo in June. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is exhibited at the Vienna Secession on the tenth anniversary of Klimt’s death.

1938 1941 1943 Following the annexation of Austria Führer makes a deal with Gustav Nazis mount retrospective of by the Nazis, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer Ucicky, son of Gustav Klimt. Klimt’s work at the Secession. The flees the country and eventually Ucicky purchases Kammer Castle on Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is settles in Switzerland. Nazis seize the Attersee III from the Belvedere. In renamed Portrait of a Lady with Gold his estate, including his Bohemian exchange, two Klimt paintings from Background. One month after this sugar factory, the Jungfer Castle in the Bloch-Bauer collection are given show, Bruno Grimschitz, director of Brezan, and his personal property, to the Belvedere (Portrait of Adele the Belvedere, purchases the second including the Klimt paintings, under Bloch-Bauer I and Apple Tree I). portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer and it the charge of tax evasion. is retitled Portrait of a Lady. First mention of acquisition of the Maria Altmann settles in Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I in 1945 California in 1942 with her husband. a book published by the Belvedere, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer re-writes his She receives U.S. citizenship in where it is described as an “awe- will in the autumn, dividing his estate 1945. inspiring portrait of a woman covered between his nieces, Luise and Maria, with a shimmering crust of gold. and his nephew Robert. 1939 Perhaps the most significant of Staff from various Austrian museums [Klimt’s] works....” The painting is In November, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer and government officials visit the retitled Woman in Gold. dies in Switzerland. He is buried Bloch-Bauer townhouse to inspect alongside his wife in Vienna. the art collection. 1946 Eric Führer, a Nazi lawyer, is The Austrian government passes appointed administrator of the Bloch- the Annulment Act, intended to void Bauer estate. any discriminatory transactions that occurred under the Nazis between 1938 and 1945.

1948 1960 In March, Karl Garzarolli, Fritz Novotny named director A committee is established to the newly appointed director of the of Belvedere. Provenance records for oversee restitution requests. Belvedere, writes his predecessor the Bloch-Bauer Klimt paintings are Grimschitz that he is in an “awkward falsified to indicate that the portraits Maria Altmann requests the return of situation” since the details of the of Adele Bloch-Bauer were acquired the Bloch-Bauer Klimt paintings arrangement with Ucickzy are not before the Nazi invasion of Austria. under the Art Restitution Law. She is documented and appear to have vio- represented by lawyer Randol lated the Bloch-Bauer bequest. He 1998 Schoenberg. also mentions the issue of restitution Journalist Hubertus Czernin locates concerning the Bloch-Bauer works, documents in the archives 1999 indicating he will need Grimschitz’s of the Austrian government proving The Restitution Committee rejects support. that Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer did not Maria Altmann’s claim for the Klimt donate the Klimt paintings and files paintings, citing Adele Bloch-Bauer’s indicating that the Belvedere was will as proof that these works were In April, Garzarolli asks the Federal aware it possessed looted art. He legally transferred to the Belvedere. Monument Office to delay the re- publishes a series of articles about The Restitution Committee re- quest to return the Bloch-Bauer art stolen by the Nazis in Vienna’s commends the return of 16 Klimt works. The Bloch-Bauer heirs are Der Standard. drawings and 19 pieces of informed that Adele’s will granted porcelain. the Belvedere title to these paintings. The Austrian government passes the The government agrees to return Art Restitution Law, which allows for Altmann’s request for arbitration is some artwork from the Bloch-Bauer art to be returned to owners who denied by the Republic of Austria. collection, but the heirs are forced to had been forced to donate it in ex- She challenges the decision but is renounce claims to Klimt paintings change for export permits pursuant forced to withdraw her claim in return. to the Annulment Act of 1946. because of the punitive legal fees assessed under Austrian law (1.2%

of litigated value, totaling over $1.5 2002 legally binding, as Ferdinand Bloch- million). Court of Appeals affirms decision. Bauer was the owner of these works.

Altmann brings suit in the Central 2004 2006 District of California against the U.S. Supreme Court rules against On January 15, the arbitration panel Republic of Austria and the Belve- the Republic of Austria and the rules that Austria must return five dere on the grounds of expropriation Belvedere, finding that FSIA applied Klimt paintings to the Bloch-Bauer of property in violation of interna- to events before the passage of the heirs. tional law. Art Restitution Law. It overrules the alleged jurisdictional immunity The Bloch-Bauer Klimt paintings are Hubertus Czernin publishes a claimed by the Republic of Austria, displayed at the Los Angeles County book about the Bloch-Bauer Klimt allowing Altmann to sue Austria in the Museum of Art and at Neue Galerie. paintings entitled The Forgery: The United States for restitution of the Bloch-Bauer Case and the Work of Bloch-Bauer Klimt paintings. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is Gustav Klimt. acquired by Neue Galerie. 2005 2000 The Republic of Austria and Altmann Four of the Bloch-Bauer paintings The Republic of Austria moves for reach an agreement to end litigation by Klimt are sold at Christie’s in dismissal of case. and submit the dispute to binding ar- New York, with proceeds benefitting bitration in Austria. Both sides agree the Bloch-Bauer heirs and various The Federal District Court denies to accept the findings of the panel as charitable organizations. Austria’s motion for dismissal final and waive right to appeal. Costs pursuant to the Foreign Sovereign are borne by the Republic of Austria. 2011 Immunities Act (FSIA). Maria Altmann dies at her home in Randol Schoenberg successfully Los Angeles on February 7 at age argues that Adele’s will was not 94.