PXL_20240921_171637477

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:03:03 -0500

Ever traditional, Neue Galerie forbids photography in the galleries. They do offer this reproduction of their capstone piece outside the bathrooms. It is Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, an oil painting with gold leaf by Gustav Klimt. She is holding her hands in that manner because she was self-conscious of the deformity of a finger. The Nazis stole this piece in 1941, gave it to a Viennese museum at the end of the war, and Bloch-Bauer's relatives had to sue to get it back. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ordered its return. The relatives promptly sold it to Ronald Lauder (of Estee Lauder), co-founder of Neue Galerie.