- Sat Feb 27, 2021 8:49 am
#129740
Given the current trend of "gold" threads, I offer this.
Did you see "Woman in Gold" while in Vienna? I happened to because everybody said visit the Belvedere and see the "Mona Lisa of Austria." It was a great painting, and even a kid like me could see that.
Anyhow, it was taken by Nazis from the home of a rich cotton merchant and housed for half a century at the Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere.
A lady in America knew it was her aunt who posed for it, and she tried to get it back. Then got a 32-year-old American lawyer in LA to look into the case. He himself was the grandson of the Austrian composer Schoenberg and eventually took a personal interest.
Because the lady had no money, and the chance of winning was so small, and the costs to pursue the case were so big, they agreed on a 40 percent contingency fee. More typical is 33 percent for a speculative case of legal adventuring.
They went to the US Sup Ct and got a favorable ruling, but Austria ignored that, so they went to a board of restitution arbitration in Austria and finally got "Woman in Gold" but other Klimt masterpieces.
In all, the value in USD was about 1/3 of a billion. The main painting itself fetched 130 million USD and sits today in NY.
Did you see "Woman in Gold" while in Vienna? I happened to because everybody said visit the Belvedere and see the "Mona Lisa of Austria." It was a great painting, and even a kid like me could see that.
Anyhow, it was taken by Nazis from the home of a rich cotton merchant and housed for half a century at the Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere.
A lady in America knew it was her aunt who posed for it, and she tried to get it back. Then got a 32-year-old American lawyer in LA to look into the case. He himself was the grandson of the Austrian composer Schoenberg and eventually took a personal interest.
Because the lady had no money, and the chance of winning was so small, and the costs to pursue the case were so big, they agreed on a 40 percent contingency fee. More typical is 33 percent for a speculative case of legal adventuring.
They went to the US Sup Ct and got a favorable ruling, but Austria ignored that, so they went to a board of restitution arbitration in Austria and finally got "Woman in Gold" but other Klimt masterpieces.
In all, the value in USD was about 1/3 of a billion. The main painting itself fetched 130 million USD and sits today in NY.
- By johnforbes