(The lawyer who handled Altmann's case was E Randol Schoenberg, the composer's grandson. Ryan Reynolds portrays him in the film.)
Again, against all odds, the panel ruled in Altmann’s favor. After a brief exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the painting was sold by Altmann for $135 million to Ronald Lauder, the billionaire art collector, who placed it in his New York art gallery, the Neue Galerie.
The result of this case for the plaintiff, Maria Altmann, was that she was authorized to proceed with a civil action against Austria in a U.S. federal district court for recovery of five paintings stolen by the Nazis from her relatives and then housed in an Austrian government museum.
As the Supreme Court noted in its decision, Altmann had already tried suing the museum before in Austria, but was forced to voluntarily dismiss her case because of Austria's rule that court costs are proportional to the amount in controversy (in this case, the enormous monetary value of the paintings).
$130 millionSo it made sense for us to sell the most valuable piece at $130 million on a private basis, and with that comparable established in the market, to offer the other four pieces at auction. ' Altmann's four Klimt paintings were sold at a record-breaking Christie's sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in November 2006.
' ” Altmann and her lawyer took their case all the way to the Supreme Court and won. However, an independent arbitration followed in 2004, resulting in Altmann's favor. Two years later, the art finally found its way to her home in Los Angeles, becoming the most expensive return of Nazi-stolen art at that time.
(JTA) — When attorney E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg saw himself portrayed on the big screen by hunky Ryan Reynolds in the movie “Woman in Gold,” he immediately spotted a difference.
Schoenberg resides in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, with his wife, Pamela Mayers Schoenberg.
The paintings were estimated to be collectively worth at least $150 million when returned. In monetary terms this represented the largest single return of Nazi-looted art in Austria. The paintings left Austria in March 2006 and were on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until June 30, 2006.
Altmann is survived by her sons, Charles, James and Peter, a daughter, Margie, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“Woman in Gold,” a 2015 film starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, is based on the true story of Maria Altmann, a Jewish woman who took on and won a years-long battle against the Austrian government to regain ownership of a Gustav Klimt painting of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer.
Golden Lady Company was established in 1966 at Castiglione delle Stiviere (MN) thanks to the business acumen of Nerino Grassi and his wife Erminia. Their dream and ambition was to make the very best quality women's tights.
composer Arnold SchoenbergHis grandfather, the composer Arnold Schoenberg, had to flee Berlin. Even if Randol had lost the case — as most people expected — it would have been worth it. He wanted to show what had happened to his family, to Altmann's family, and to all the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe.
Neue Galerie New YorkPrivate collectionPortrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I/Locations
Sixty years after fleeing Vienna, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), an elderly Jewish woman, attempts to reclaim family possessions that were seized by the Nazis. Among them is a famous portrait of Maria's beloved Aunt Adele: Gustave Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I." With the help of young lawyer Randy Schoeberg (Ryan Reynolds), Maria embarks upon a lengthy legal battle to recover this painting and several others, but it will not be easy, for Austria considers them national treasures.Woman in Gold / Film synopsis
Altmann (P) brought suit against Austria (D) and the Austrian Gallery (Gallery) (D) when she learnt that certain valuable art works which belonged to her uncle and was seized or expropriated by Austria (D) after World War II. This suit was filed in a federal district court to recover the arts which consisted of six paintings by Gustav Klimt. She also based her ownership of the painting on the premise that her uncle had willed the paintings to her before he fled Austria.
Altmann (P) brought suit against Austria (D) and the Austrian Gallery (Gallery) (D) when she learnt that certain valuable art works which belonged to her uncle and was seized or expropriated by Austria (D) after World War II.
Austria also claimed that the displayed art in an Austrian Museum which was highly valuable was obtained unlawfully during and after the World War II and that the art rightly belonged to her. Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Legal career. Schoenberg represented Maria Altmann in her suit to obtain five Gustav Klimt paintings from the estate of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer as well as the "Palais", the Viennese house in which the paintings had been housed.
Altmann won her case before the Supreme Court of the United States against the government of Austria in Republic of Austria v. Altmann in 2004. Schoenberg operated on a contingent fee basis and reportedly received 40% of the proceeds from the Klimt paintings, amounting to a legal fee of over $120 million.
Schoenberg is portrayed by Ryan Reynolds .
Schoenberg took the gamble -- there’d be no money from Maria Altmann’s case unless he won -- and says he made $20,000 the first year, trying to cobble together a living from cases he took on the side. After that, Schoenberg said, he joined a partnership that gave him a salary and the freedom to pursue the Klimts.
Altmann, who’s played by Helen Mirren, had been the best friend from childhood of Schoenberg’s maternal grandmother. Like Schoenberg’s famous grandfathers, composers Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl, Altmann fled Austria for the United States before World War II broke out, escaping the fate that claimed two-thirds of Europe’s pre-war Jewish population.
Supreme Court, Schoenberg and Altmann won big in January 2006.
The gold painting, officially “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” was sold privately to New York’s Neue Galerie of early 20 th century Austrian and German art in a deal bankrolled by its founder, cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder.
When Schoenberg optioned his “life rights” in 2010 for a film by the English director Simon Curtis, he did not insist on controlling the story. He claims no expertise about the movie industry, “but this much I know about Hollywood: If I wanted to retain control, no one would ever touch it.
The avant-garde of the Austrian capital included the composer Arnold Schoenberg. (The lawyer who handled Altmann's case was E Randol Schoenberg, the composer's grandson. Ryan Reynolds portrays him in the film.)
He sent Altmann a cashmere sweater to see if Americans might like the fine, soft wool. Altmann took the sweater to a department store in Beverly Hills, which agreed to sell them. Other stores across the country followed suit, and Altmann eventually opened her own clothing boutique.
The couple had three sons and a daughter in America, building a life together in a country that welcomed them. Yet Altmann never forgot what the Nazis stole from her family. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, painting by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). Photo: Leemage/Corbis/Getty Images.
Altmann led a charmed childhood. Maria Viktoria Bloch-Bauer was born to Gustav Bloch-Bauer and Therese Bauer on February 18, 1916, in Vienna, Austria. Her wealthy Jewish family, including her uncle Ferdinand and aunt Adele, were close to the artists of the Vienna Secession movement, which Klimt helped establish in 1897.
The Altmanns then fled to America and ultimately settled in California.
Altmann said her Aunt Adele had always wanted her golden portrait in a public gallery. Ronald Lauder , a businessman and philanthropist who had loved Adele's face from boyhood, happily paid $135 million to enshrine her in his Neue Galerie in Manhattan. At the time, it was the largest sum ever purchased for a painting.
The first and most famous of the two later became known as Woman in Gold. The 2015 film focuses on Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann, played by Helen Mirren, and her quest to reclaim the famous Klimt painting from the Austrian government, but there is a lot more to her story.
The movie focuses on the relationship between Maria Altmann, the elderly descendant of one of the wealthiest and most prominent Jewish families in Vienna, and a young, unproven lawyer who took on the Austrian and American governments to recover what was then the most expensive painting in the world.
Despite facing a battery of experienced lawyers representing both the Austrian and American governments, the justices ruled 6 to 3 in Maria Altmann’s favor. Austria did not recognize the American verdict and, in another major gamble, Schoenberg agreed to submit the dispute to an arbitration panel of three Austrian experts. Again, against all odds, the panel ruled in Altmann’s favor.
Four other works by Klimt, a later portrait of Adele and three landscapes, were later auctioned off for nearly $193 million, bringing the total for Altmann and some close relatives to some $326 million.
Schoenberg declined to spell out his share of that sum, but media reports generally put the figure at about $139 million.
Bloch-Bauer’s wife, Adele, reigned over a glittering salon attended by Vienna’s leading artists and intellectuals. A frequent guest was Gustav Klimt, the most sought-after painter in Austria, as famous for for seducing the subjects of his portraits as for his innovative style.
Her husband, his opera ambitions unfulfilled, died in 1994. Altmann died in 2011 at age 94. After the war, Austria came under increasing international pressure to return or compensate its former Jewish citizens for their confiscated property.
The movie focuses on the relationship between Maria Altmann, the elderly descendant of one of the wealthiest and most prominent Jewish families in Vienna , and a young, unproven lawyer who took on the Austrian and American governments to recover what was then the most expensive painting in the world. “Woman in Gold” recreates an era ...
Four other works by Klimt, a later portrait of Adele and three landscapes, were later auctioned off for nearly $193 million, bringing the total for Altmann and some close relatives to some $326 million.
Schoenberg declined to spell out his share of that sum, but media reports generally put the figure at about $139 million.
Bloch-Bauer’s wife, Adele, reigned over a glittering salon attended by Vienna’s leading artists and intellectuals. A frequent guest was Gustav Klimt, the most sought-after painter in Austria, as famous for for seducing the subjects of his portraits as for his innovative style. Between 1903 and 1907, Klimt painted Adele in a gold-flecked portrait, ...
Austria did not recognize the American verdict and, in another major gamble, Schoenberg agreed to submit the dispute to an arbitration panel of three Austrian experts. Again, against all odds, the panel ruled in Altmann’s favor.
Even now, the struggle over Klimt’s paintings is not over.
And the amount that your lawyer will usually take from your settlement amounts to exactly a third of the sum that you’ll be awarded.
Regardless of the amount that you’re awarded in your settlement, your lawyer’s percentage of the fee that you’re awarded will be the same, thirty-three percent .
The bad news is, that if your lawyer does lose, then you will be responsible for paying all of the court costs and additional fees that were incurred during the case.
If a lawyer chooses not to take your case, it might be due to the fact that they think it can’t be won, that they can’t help you or there might be another reason altogether. But whatever that reason is, they’ll explain it to you before you leave their office.
Typically, the other costs that are taken out of your settlement are directly attributable to the case and will be centered around the court costs and any, and all additional expenditure that might arise from, and during legal proceedings.
Contrary to what you might have been led to believe, the amount that lawyers make from settlements isn’t set by law and to a certain degree depends on the type of settlement and what it relates to.
Only if they want to disbarred and serve a lengthy prison sentence, and as no lawyer in their right mind would ever want to have to face the consequences of doing so, they will not, under any circumstances attempt to steal or cheat you out of any, or all of the settlement that you have won and are legally entitled to, and due.