P A I N T I N G

Completed in 1907, Painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt is today best known for being one of the most valuable paintings in history. The painting, made of oil and gold on canvas, features elaborate Jugendstil ornamentation.

Adele was painted in Vienna at the request of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, wealthy local businessman who was a supporter of Klimt's work. Klimt painted two pictures of Adele, Bloch-Bauer's wife, with the second one completed in 1912.

After Adele died in 1925, her paintings were displayed in the Austrian State Gallery, where they remained until World War II. When Ferdinand fled to Switzerland, the paintings were left behind and claimed by the Nazis. Following the war, descendants of the Bloch-Bauers argued in the Austrian and American court systems that the paintings should be given to them. In 2006, Ferdinand's niece Maria Altmann gained ownership of the paintings.

That same year, Ronald Lauder paid $135 million (USD) for Adele, making it at the time the most expensive painting in history. Lauder, one of the world's most affluent people and dedicated recoverer of Nazi-stolen art, made the painting the focal point of his Neue Galerie, a New York City art gallery dedicated exclusively to Austrian and German art of the 1900s.