From today's NY Times , a timely article for those interested in history as well as European treasures https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/arts/design/florentine-diamond-resurfaces-hapsburg.html
Posted by
Republic of Texas / U.S.A. / Magyarország / Budapest
24520 posts
Steven, thank you. Facinating.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7793 posts
Is it me, or is it behind a paywall?
Posted by
Green Bay
22926 posts
Posted by
OP
white plains, ny, usa
4197 posts
My attempt to unlock this evidently failed . Thanks for the correction Sam !
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7793 posts
So interesting, thank you, Steven and Sam.
Interesting that the Austria Government wants to investigate if they might have a claim to the gem. Yet, they weren't exactly forthcoming with art objects stolen from Jewish Austrians.
Posted by
2641 posts
Yet, they weren't exactly forthcoming with art objects stolen from Jewish Austrians.
This is not quite correct.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7793 posts
Well, there were the stolen Klimt paintings held by the Belvedere for many years
"Lawyers for the two sides have fought since 1998 over rights to the famed portrait and four other paintings — a lesser-known Bloch-Bauer portrait as well as “Apfelbaum” (“Apple Tree”), “Buchenwald/Birkenwald (“Beech Forest/Birch Forest) and “Haeuser in Unterach am Attersee” (Houses in Unterach on Attersee Lake”)."
Posted by
OP
white plains, ny, usa
4197 posts
Not to cloud the issue further - It had been Adele Bloch-Bauer's intention to leave the portrait ( 1 ) to the Belvedere upon her death which occurred in 1925 . Neither she nor her husband foresaw the rise of the Nazis in 1933 . The painting was seized by the Nazis when they rose to power . Ferdinand Bloch Bauer escaped shortly before Kristallnacht and his entire estate fell under the grasp of the NDSAP . The looting also included a villa he owned In Prague which became the home of Reinhard Heydrich . As Heydrich traveled from this villa to his office in Prague Castle in May 1942 he was assassinated , the target of Operation Anthropoid , he having been the principal architect of the " Final Solution " at The Wannsee Conference in January 1942 . So , the painting went to The Belvedere. albeit by a circuitous route and for the wrong reason
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7793 posts
It's been a while since I read about the Klimt paintings, but my recollection is that it wasn't completely clear that the owner necessarily intended for the paintings to go to the Belvedere.
Posted by
2641 posts
It had been Adele Bloch-Bauer's intention to leave the portrait ( 1 ) to the Belvedere upon her death ...
It did not come this way, mainly because of Mrs. Gehrer, then Secretary of Education in Austria, whose hamfisted, condescendent and ignorant negotiations annoyed everybody, eventually leading to the auctioning of the painting in the US.