Lady in Gold (O'Connor)

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
Anne-Marie O'Connor, 2015
Knopf Doubleday
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 978110187312


Summary
Contributor to the Washington Post Anne-Marie O’Connor brilliantly regales us with the galvanizing story of Gustav Klimt’s 1907 masterpiece—the breathtaking portrait of a Viennese Jewish socialite, Adele Bloch-Bauer.

The celebrated painting, stolen by Nazis during World War II, subsequently became the subject of a decade-long dispute between her heirs and the Austrian government. When the U.S. Supreme Court became involved in the case, its decision had profound ramifications in the art world.

Expertly researched, masterfully told, The Lady in Gold is at once a stunning depiction of fin-de siècle Vienna, a riveting tale of Nazi war crimes, and a fascinating glimpse into the high-stakes workings of the contemporary art world. (From the publisher .)

See the 2015 movie with Helen Mirren. (Retitled "Woman in Gold.")
Listen to the Screen Thoughts podcast as Hollister and O'Toole compare book and film.

Author Bio
Anne-Marie O'Connor is an American journalist and writer who authored the bestselling The Lady in Gold, The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. The book is the story of the battle by Vienna emigre Maria Altmann to reclaim five Gustav Klimt paintings from her native Austria in an eight-year legal battle by Los Angeles attorney E. Randol Schoenberg. One of the paintings, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I sold for a record $135 million in 2006.

A longtime journalist in Latin America, O'Connor covered the civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador as a Central America bureau chief for Reuters. She was also a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, UPI, and the Cox Newspaper chain. She has also written for Esquire, Christian Science Monitor, and The Nation. She is a speaker on the subject of the Nazi plunder of art and restitution. (From Wikipedia.)

O'Connor first became interested in Maria Altman's story almost by chance: in 2001 she noticed a piece in a Los Angeles community paper about a woman seeking the return of stolen Nazi art. Reading on, O'Connor realized the case involved one of the most famous paintings in the world, one she'd even known from her childhood. She tracked Altman down and began interviewing her. Even though O'Connor felt the case was hopeless, she told her editors at the Los Angeles Times it would make for a fascinating story. (Read the full story at Lauren Zuckerman's Paris Web.)

Book Reviews
[A] fascinating work, ambitious, exhaustively researched and profligately detailed…But the book's title does not do justice to O'Connor's scope, which includes the Viennese Belle Epoque, the Anschluss, the diaspora of Viennese Jews, the looting of their artwork and legal battles over its restitution, and thorny questions facing the heirs of reclaimed art…. O'Connor's book is a mesmerizing tale of art and the Holocaust, encased in a profusion of beguiling detail, much as Adele herself is encrusted in Klimt's resplendent portrait.
Kathryn Lang - Washington Post


A celebration of art and persistence.... O’Connor’s book brings Klimt’s exceptional portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer home, broadening the meaning of homeland at the same time.
Christian Science Monitor


O’Connor traces the multifaceted history of Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907) in this intriguing, energetically composed, but overly episodic study of Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, and her niece, Maria Bloch-Bauer who reclaimed five Klimt paintings stolen by the Nazis. 54 photos.
Publishers Weekly


This epic story of a painting begins in the late 19th century, as Gustav Klimt becomes the premier painter of the Vienna Secession and Adele Bloch-Bauer, a renowned salon hostess and patron of the arts, and ends....[when Klimt's painting is] finally won back by Bloch-Bauer’s heirs in an agonizing legal battle.  —Molly McArdle
Library Journal


(Starred review.) Writing with a novelist’s dynamism, O’Connor resurrects fascinating individuals and tells a many-faceted, intensely affecting, and profoundly revelatory tale of the inciting power of art and the unending need for justice.
Booklist


O’Connor skillfully filters Austria’s troubled twentieth century through the life of Klimt’s most beloved muse.... A nuanced view of a painting whose story transcends its own time.
Bookforum


The lusciously detailed story of Gustav Klimt’s most famous painting, detailing the relationship between the artist, the subject, their heirs and those who coveted the masterpiece.... Art-history fans will love the deep details of the painting, and history buffs will revel in the facts O’Connor includes as she exposes a deeper picture of World War II.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Lady in Gold:

1. Describe Viennese society as portrayed by Anne-Marie O'Connor in The Lady in Gold. Certainly it was "glittering," but what else was it? What role did the Jewish haute bourgeoisie play in that society? How strongly did they identify themselves as Jewish? Was there any hint of the virulent—and violent—antisemitism that was to emerge decades later?

2. Talk about the luminous figures in Vienna at the time—especially Adele Bloch-Bauer, her family, and Gustav Klimt.

3. Where did Klimt find his inspiration for his artistic style, particularly the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I? Display a copy of the painting for the group, and let members talk about its effect on them personally. What does each find most striking? What was its effect on Viennese society?

4. You might also do some research into the Secessionist movement in art and its founding by Gustav Klimt, as well as the other artists. What were they rebelling against? How would you describe their art?

5. O'Connor mentions the Viennese Academy of Arts' rejection of Adolph Hitler. What is the author's veiled implication by including that piece of information—is it merely to point out a bit of historical irony?

6. The second third of O'Connor's book covers the Nazi takeover of Austria. O'Connor places this chapter immediately after her chapter on the glory of the Viennese Belle Epoque. What effect does this juxtaposition have on your reading? Given everything you've most likely read and seen over the years, were you at all surprised by the Nazi thuggery? Is here a hint that the Nazi pillage of lavish homes and valuable art had more to do with venality than antisemitism?

7. How do you view the Austria's stance regarding the stolen artworks held in their possession well after the end of World War II? The museum claimed the paintings were part of their national heritage. Was there any validity in that claim or was it simply self-serving?

8. A Wall Street Journal review of The Lady in Gold presents an ethical conundrum regarding the return of Nazi-pilfered art, an issue not considered by the book's author. As a result of outsized bidding for the five Klimt paintings, the public has lost access to all but one—Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, now in New York. In an inflationary art market, public museums cannot compete with the wealth of individual buyers; as a result, paintings of historical significance are now held by private collectors outside the public domain. Is there middle ground, on which both heirs and museums could land, that would foster both fair restitution and public access to important works of art? (You might want to read the complete review here.)

9. What made Maria Altmann and Randol Schoenberg such a good team? What attributes did each of them bring to the partnership.

10. Were you able to follow the legal battle that Altmann and Schoenberg pursued? What legal obstacles were thrown in their path? Were you angered, even disgusted, by Austria's intransigence? Did you feel any degree of sympathy for their position? What legal strategy ultimately prevailed for Altmann/Schoenberg?

11. Many reviewers make reference to the wealth of detail the author has included in her book. Did you find the details superfluous, perhaps distracting? Or did the details enrich and deepen the story for you?

12. Watch the 2015 Helen Mirren movie Woman in Gold and discuss the book vs. film. How well does the film depict the book? Do you prefer one over the other?

16. You might also spend a separate night watching The Monuments Men (2014) with George Clooney and Matt Damon. That film provides a broad overview of the extent of Nazi art plunder.

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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