Book Review: The Lady in Gold by Anne Marie O'Connor

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
by Anne Marie O’Connor (759.36 Kli)

As an art lover, I was familiar with the works of artist Gustav Klimt, but did not know the story behind the recovery of one of his most famous works, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.” After seeing the film Woman in Gold about the efforts of Maria Altmann and her lawyer, Randy Schoenberg, to get Austria to return famous paintings that had been stolen from her Jewish family by the Nazis, I decided I wanted to learn more about the events that led up to this famous trial. This book is a fascinating story of everything that was going on in Vienna before the Nazis took over and the events that have happened since the end of World War II. Although I was aware of the Holocaust and efforts to regain property taken away from Jewish families, I was not aware of the extreme difficulties survivors encountered in reclaiming what rightfully belonged to them. O’Connor’s book does an excellent job of showing the subject from all points of view — from the victims, the art museums, the legal scholars and the politicians. This was a story that I could not put down. I highly recommend it.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the DVDs Woman in Gold, and World on Fire.] [ official Anne Marie O’Connor web site ]

See Rianne S’s review of The Lady in Gold, here on BookGuide in November 2012

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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