# Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I > Gustav Klimt - 1903-1907 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/gustav-klimt/klimt-adele-bloch-bauer-i-neue-galerie/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-10-08 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Gustav Klimt - **Date:** 1903-1907 - **Medium:** Oil, silver and gold on canvas - **Dimensions:** 140 x 140 cm (55 1/8 x 55 1/8 in), as given by LACMA and the Neue Galerie - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Austrian, early twentieth century - **Current location:** Neue Galerie New York - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary A square canvas of gold and silver leaf and oil, 140 centimetres on a side, commissioned in 1903 by a Viennese sugar manufacturer from a Prague family as a portrait of his wife, finished by Klimt in 1907 after a journey to the mosaics of Ravenna. It is the first of two full-length portraits Klimt painted of Adele Bloch-Bauer, and it is the picture the Neue Galerie in New York calls the Woman in Gold.Its documented life has three parts that are rarely told together. Adele's will of 1923 asked her husband to leave her two portraits and four landscapes to the Austrian State Gallery, and whether that sentence was a binding bequest or a request is the question on which two Austrian bodies reached opposite answers. In 1941 a Nazi-appointed administrator handed the portrait to the gallery and received another Klimt from it in return, and in 1948 the heirs' lawyer acknowledged the gallery's claim while seeking export permits for the rest of the collection. On 15 January 2006 a three-member arbitration court ruled that the conditions of the 1998 Art Restitution Act for return without payment were met for five paintings, and that the Republic had acquired title to them in 1948.The Neue Galerie announced on 19 June 2006 that it had agreed to acquire the portrait by private sale, at a price reported as 135 million dollars and not stated by the museum. No auction sale appears in its documented ownership chain. The four other restituted Klimts sold at Christie's on 8 November 2006 for 192.7 million dollars together, and the sources disagree on points this record sets out, among them the sitter's death date, the administrator's first name and the picture's wartime titles. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1903-1907** Gustav Klimt, Vienna (painted for Ferdinand Bloch) `[documented]` (commission and execution) Commissioned in 1903 by Ferdinand Bloch (from 1917 Bloch-Bauer) as a portrait of his wife, first intended as an anniversary present for her parents. Adele's letter of 22 August 1903 survives in the Austrian National Library. The price paid is not recorded in any source consulted. - **1907-1925** Ferdinand and Adele Bloch(-Bauer), Vienna `[disputed]` (delivery; shown at Mannheim 1907 and the Vienna Kunstschau 1908, then hung in the family's Vienna residence; loan to the Staatsgalerie 1919-20) Possession is documented. Which spouse legally owned the picture is the point on which the Republic of Austria and the heirs divided: the Republic argued before the 2006 arbitration court that Adele owned the paintings, the heirs that Ferdinand did. The court found more reason to think Ferdinand did, applied the then-current presumption in favour of the husband, and did not find Adele's ownership strongly probable. - **24 January 1925-1938** Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, Vienna and Jungfernbreschan `[disputed]` (widower's possession after Adele's death; loans to the Secession 1928, London 1934 and Paris 1937) Adele's will of 19 January 1923 asked her husband after his death to leave her two portraits and four landscapes to the Austrian State Gallery. Her executor stated in probate that this was a non-binding request and that the paintings were the widower's. The 2006 arbitration court held the request non-binding and, applying the presumption in favour of the husband because Adele's ownership was not shown to be strongly probable, treated Ferdinand as the owner; the Advisory Board of 1999 had held that the Republic's title came from the will or Ferdinand's acknowledgment of it. - **1938-1941** Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer's property in Vienna under a Nazi-appointed administrator, Dr Erich Fuhrer (tax proceedings of 1938, according to the claimants) `[documented]` (seizure and administration of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer's property) Ferdinand left Austria after the Anschluss of 12 March 1938. The claimants in the arbitration stated that tax proceedings began on 27 April 1938 and that Dr Fuhrer was appointed administrator in them; the Neue Galerie timeline dates his appointment to 1939; the Lexikon der Provenienzforschung names him as a lawyer and member of the NSDAP and SS. The Neue Galerie states the Nazis seized five Klimt paintings from the home in 1938. The 2006 arbitration court held that the Annulment Act's element of appropriation was fulfilled for all five paintings, in its analysis of the second element of the 1998 Act. The arbitration award's first name for him (Friedrich) differs from the Lexikon and the Supreme Court (Erich) and the Neue Galerie timeline (Eric). - **1941-1948** In the possession of the Osterreichische Galerie (then also called the Moderne Galerie), Vienna, now the Belvedere; Inv. No. 3830. Title passed to the Republic only in 1948, on the 2006 court's finding `[documented]` (transfer by Dr Fuhrer in exchange for Schloss Kammer am Attersee III) In 1941 Fuhrer gave this picture and Apple Tree I to the gallery and received Schloss Kammer am Attersee III, which he sold to Gustav Ucicky. The arbitration award describes the transfer, which it says the Republic did not dispute in outline, and inclines to the view that Fuhrer 'simply extorted' the exchange picture. The gallery's inventory records the portrait as a 'dedication'. The picture was retitled Woman in Gold (Neue Galerie, Silverman) or Dame in Gold (Wikipedia); the Neue Galerie timeline adds Portrait of a Lady with Gold Background in 1943. The English Wikipedia article gives December 1941 for the transfer; the arbitration award and the Supreme Court say 1941. - **10 April 1948-2006** Republic of Austria, Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna `[disputed]` (settlement between Dr Gustav Rinesch for the heirs and Dr Garzarolli for the gallery; retention by the Republic) The 2006 arbitration court held that the Republic acquired ownership through the 1948 settlement, not through the will, and that this acquisition is valid in civil law. It also assumed that the pressure of the export procedure was responsible to a large extent for the heirs' representative's concession, so that the conditions of the 1998 Art Restitution Act for return without payment were met. The heirs' side has described the same events as coercion; the Republic's side denied that Rinesch was forced. The Advisory Board refused restitution in 1999. The Austrian Art Restitution Act of 1998 is the statute the court applied. - **15 January 2006-June 2006** The heirs of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (Maria Altmann, Francis Gutmann, Trevor Mantle, George Bentley and others named in the award) `[documented]` (restitution under the arbitral award; export from Austria in March 2006; shown at LACMA 4 April to 30 June 2006) The award was signed on 15 January 2006 and became public on 16 January. The departure from Austria in March is stated by the English Wikipedia article on Maria Altmann only. LACMA credited the portrait to the Estate of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. - **June 2006-present** Neue Galerie New York (Ronald S. Lauder, president and co-founder) `[documented]` (purchase by private sale, announced 19 June 2006) No auction sale appears in this picture's documented ownership chain, so there is no hammer price or buyer's premium. The sale was negotiated privately; the price is reported as 135 million United States dollars by the New York Times as cited by Al Jazeera, by ARTnews and by Hyperallergic, and the museum's own press release states no price. The credit line records the contribution of the heirs. The four other restituted Klimts were sold at Christie's, New York, on 8 November 2006. The museum's galleries are closed until 12 November 2026. ## Exhibitions - Mannheim Jubilee Exhibition, listed in the catalogue as one of three 'mosaic pictures' by Klimt, Kunsthalle Mannheim, May to October 1907, 1907 - Kunstschau Wien 1908, the Klimt Room, Vienna, 1908 - Loan with the other Klimt paintings of the collection, Osterreichische Staatsgalerie (now Belvedere), Vienna, 1919-1920 - Klimt memorial exhibition, tenth anniversary of his death, Vienna Secession, 1928 - Austria in London, London, 1934 - Exposition d'Art Autrichien, Musee du Jeu de Paume, Paris, May and June 1937, 1937 - Nazi-era Klimt retrospective at the Secession, the occasion the Neue Galerie timeline gives for the retitling as Portrait of a Lady with Gold Background, Vienna Secession, 1943 - Displayed at the Belvedere for decades until 2006, according to the Neue Galerie, Belvedere, Vienna, 1941-2006 - Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 4 April to 30 June 2006, 2006 - Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer, then permanent display, Neue Galerie New York, from 13 July 2006, 2006 - Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold, Neue Galerie New York, 2 April to 7 September 2015, 2015 - Klimt and the Women of Vienna's Golden Age, 1900-1918, Neue Galerie New York, 22 September 2016 to 16 January 2017, 2016-2017 - 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Neue Galerie New York, announced for 12 November 2026 to 11 January 2027, 2026-2027 ## Literature - Frank Whitford, Klimt (Thames and Hudson, 1990), as cited in the English Wikipedia article; not seen. - Hubertus Czernin, Die Falschung: Der Fall Bloch-Bauer und das Werk Gustav Klimts (Vienna, 1999); not seen. - Georg Gaugusch, Wer einmal war: Das juedische Grossbuergertum Wiens 1800-1938, vol. 1 (Vienna, 2011), pp. 104-107, as listed by the Klimt Database; not seen. - Sophie Lillie, 'The Golden Age of Klimt: The Artist's Great Patrons', in Renee Price (ed.), Gustav Klimt: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections (Neue Galerie, 2007), pp. 54-89, as listed by the Klimt Database; not seen. - Welser and Rabl, Der Fall Klimt (Manz, 2005) and Krejci, Der Klimt-Streit (Verlag Osterreich), the two opinions submitted to the arbitration court, as listed in the award; not seen. ## Open questions - What did Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer pay Klimt, and when? No source consulted gives a price or a payment date for the commission, and the only indirect remark, by the 2006 arbitration court, concerns the 'relatively low value of the painting at that time'. - Is the frame now on the picture Hoffmann's original of 1907? The Klimt Database says the frame was based on a Hoffmann design, and no source consulted records its history, treatment or location during the Belvedere years. - What did Klimt intend by the eyes and triangles, if anything? No letter, notebook or interview explaining the motifs was found. The Neue Galerie says 'all-seeing eye motifs', Whitford (via Wikipedia) says Egyptian, and the label 'Eye of Horus' was not traced to a named scholar. - Who retitled the picture, when and in which words? The Neue Galerie timeline gives Woman in Gold in 1941 and Portrait of a Lady with Gold Background in 1943, Silverman attributes the title to the Nazis and Wikipedia to the gallery, and the Belvedere's inventory and publications of those years have not been seen. - Did the Belvedere's provenance records for the Bloch-Bauer portraits change in 1960, as the Neue Galerie timeline states? The claim rests on that timeline and the 1998 press findings, and the underlying files have not been seen for this record. - Has the canvas been examined technically? No published pigment, metal-leaf, ground or condition analysis of this painting was found; the Belvedere's account of Klimt's gold technique is general, and who applied the leaf is not recorded. - What was the actual price in June 2006, and on what terms? The 135 million dollars is reported by the New York Times as cited by others and by ARTnews, and the Neue Galerie's release names no figure; ARTnews says the adviser declined to discuss how it was set. - Was an export permit required or issued when the paintings left Austria in March 2006? The Lexikon says a repurchase by the Republic did not come about, and the sources consulted say nothing of any export procedure in 2006. - Who was the recipient of Adele's letter of 22 August 1903, Julius Bauer: her brother (Neue Galerie timeline) or a journalist friend (Klimt Database)? - When was Dr Fuhrer appointed administrator, and what was his first name? The claimants say April 1938 and the Neue Galerie timeline 1939; the arbitration award says Friedrich and the Lexikon and the Supreme Court say Erich and the Neue Galerie timeline says Eric. - Has the Belvedere made a statement of its own on the 1941 acquisition? Its provenance page records that the committee advised against restitution and that the pictures 'have subsequently been restituted', and no further public statement by the museum was found. ## Sources - [1] Arbitral award in the matter of Maria V. Altmann, Francis Gutmann, Trevor Mantle, George Bentley and Dr Stefan Gulner, and Dr Nelly Auersperg, against the Republic of Austria; arbitration court Dr Andreas Nodl, Prof. Walter H. Rechberger and Prof. Peter Rummel (chairman); Vienna, 15 January 2006; English text, 46 pages, as hosted by the University of Geneva ArThemis case database (the file title there gives the year as 2004 in error). - [2] Adele Bloch-Bauer, handwritten will, Vienna, 19 January 1923 (German transcript, owner given as Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv), as hosted by the University of Geneva ArThemis case database. - [3] Supreme Court of the United States, Republic of Austria v. Altmann, 541 U.S. 677 (2004), argued 25 February and decided 7 June 2004, opinion of the Court by Justice Stevens, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. - [4] Supreme Court of the United States, Republic of Austria v. Altmann, No. 03-13, syllabus, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. - [5] Klimt Database (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), 'The Bloch-Bauer Family', in Network Vienna 1900, Benefactors. - [6] Klimt Database (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), 'Klimt's Artworks 1907-1909: Gustav Klimt at His Zenith', including the entries on Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, the Kunstschau Wien 1908 and the Mannheim Jubilee Exhibition 1907. - [7] Klimt Database (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), 'Italy', Network Vienna 1900, Places, on Klimt's 1903 journeys to Venice and Ravenna and the Lenz travel diary. - [8] Klimt Database (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), 'The Biography', year by year. - [9] Klimt Database (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), 'Klimt's Artworks 1910-1913: Expressive Blaze of Colors', including the entry on Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II. - [10] Neue Galerie New York, 'Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I (1907)', the museum's Woman in Gold page, with credit line and description of the painting; fetched 8 October 2026. - [11] Neue Galerie New York, press release 'Neue Galerie New York Agrees to Acquire Spectacular Klimt Painting, Adele Bloch-Bauer I', 19 June 2006 (Internet Archive copy of 18 October 2017). - [12] Neue Galerie New York, 'The Woman in Gold: Historical Timeline' (PDF; Internet Archive copy of 11 May 2016). - [13] Neue Galerie New York, exhibition page 'Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold', 2 April to 7 September 2015. - [14] Neue Galerie New York, home page, with the notice of the autumn 2026 reopening and the 25th Anniversary Exhibition; fetched 8 October 2026. - [15] Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 'Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer', 4 April to 30 June 2006, with caption giving medium, 140 x 140 cm and lender. - [16] Leonhard Weidinger, 'Bloch-Bauer, Ferdinand', Lexikon der Provenienzforschung, Kommission fuer Provenienzforschung, Vienna, 20 December 2021 (in German). - [17] Beschluss des Kunstrueckgabebeirats, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, 28 June 1999 (Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board decision, in German), Kommission fuer Provenienzforschung. - [18] Belvedere, Vienna, 'Provenance Research', with the list of restitutions and the statement on the Bloch-Bauer Klimts (Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Inv. No. 3830). - [19] Lisa Ebner-Kollmann, 'Why did Gustav Klimt use gold?', Belvedere, Vienna, 11 June 2026. - [20] Belvedere, Vienna, 'Who Was Gustav Klimt?', 28 March 2026. - [21] Eileen Kinsella, 'Gold Rush', ARTnews, 1 January 2007. - [22] Christie's, press release on the Impressionist and Modern Art sale of 8 November 2006, with top ten prices, lot numbers and estimates, as reproduced by The Art Wolf, 15 November 2006. Christie's own lot pages were not reached. - [23] Al Jazeera, 'Klimt painting sold for record $135m', 19 June 2006, citing the New York Times. - [24] Diane Haithman and Christopher Reynolds, 'Court Awards Nazi-Looted Artworks to L.A. Woman', Los Angeles Times, 17 January 2006. - [25] Lisa Silverman, 'Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer I', Shared History project of the Leo Baeck Institute New York | Berlin, published by the Bundeszentrale fuer politische Bildung (in German). - [26] Benjamin Sutton, 'Oprah Winfrey Sold Klimt Painting for $150M', Hyperallergic, 8 February 2017, citing Bloomberg. - [27] Wikipedia, 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'. Tertiary source, used only to report claims it attributes to named authors (Whitford 1990, Shapira 2016, Natter, Dean, Muller and Tatzkow); flagged for replacement with those publications and with the Belvedere's files. - [28] Wikipedia, 'Woman in Gold (film)'. Tertiary source for the film's credits, release dates and the Austrian critics' objections; flagged for replacement with the cited articles in Der Standard and Kurier. - [29] Wikipedia, 'Maria Altmann'. Tertiary source for her dates and for the March 2006 departure of the paintings from Austria; flagged for replacement with primary sources. - [30] Wikipedia, 'Hubertus Czernin'. Tertiary source for his dates and role; flagged for replacement with his own articles and book. - [31] Kommission fuer Provenienzforschung, 'Kunstrueckgabegesetz' (Art Restitution Act of 1998, last amended 2023), with links to the consolidated texts in German and English. - [32] Wikimedia Commons, file page 'Gustav Klimt - Study for Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I - Google Art Project.jpg', which carries the Google Art Project record for The Jewish Museum, New York (charcoal on paper, 1903, museum number 1997-137). --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.