Here at Absolut Austria we have spoken several times about the thefts of works of art by the Nazis during the time they occupied Austria. Many of these works were stolen from wealthy Jewish families who had to flee and give up their wealth before life.
That is what happened to the family of Maria Altman, Viennese Jews of high birth who had to leave everything and flee to the United States. This lady carried out, in 1998, a famous trial to recover perhaps one of the most famous paintings by the artist Gustav Klimt, the one that portrayed her aunt: Adele Bloch-Bauer I portrait frame. The work had been confiscated from his family during World War II and was on display in an Austrian museum. The movie Lady in Gold, starring Helen Mirren, portrays the legal battle to recover the painting.
Maria Altman, in the film Helen Mirren, begins a trial against the Republic of Austria, a trial that would only end in 2004 and with a sentence in her favor. The film also stars Ryan Reynolds, the lawyer in charge of requesting and processing the restitution of the work, especially when the museum claims that his aunt bequeathed the work to the museum legally. The movie is no big deal, another movie that adds to the denunciations against the Nazis and their crimes, but Mirren always shines.
Anyway, if you like Austria and history we have already talked here about Gustav Klimt so the movie Woman in Gold or Woman in Gold, deserves to be seen.