attorney who sold of lady in gold

by Orie Rosenbaum II 10 min read

E. Randol Schoenberg
BornSeptember 12, 1966 Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
Alma materPrinceton University University of Southern California
OccupationLawyer
SpousePamela Mayers-Schoenberg
4 more rows

Full Answer

Who is the lawyer in the movie Woman in gold?

(JTA) — When attorney E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg saw himself portrayed on the big screen by hunky Ryan Reynolds in the movie “Woman in Gold,” he immediately spotted a difference.

How much did Barry Schoenberg get paid for ‘woman in gold’?

Schoenberg declined to spell out his share of that sum, but media reports generally put the figure at about $139 million. The film “Woman in Gold” is based largely on the book “The Lady in Gold” by former Los Angeles Times reporter Anne-Marie O’Connor, and draws much of its strength from the performance of Helen Mirren in the role of Maria Altmann.

Is the lady in gold a true story?

Not exactly. Bruno Grimschitz, the Nazi curator at the Austrian Gallery, first changed the name of the painting to "Golden Portrait" and later to "The Lady in Gold." As emphasized in the movie, this was done to hide the fact that the woman in the painting was Jewish.

Why did they change the name of the lady in gold?

Bruno Grimschitz, the Nazi curator at the Austrian Gallery, first changed the name of the painting to "Golden Portrait" and later to "The Lady in Gold." As emphasized in the movie, this was done to hide the fact that the woman in the painting was Jewish.

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Who was the lawyer in Woman in Gold?

(JTA) — When attorney E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg saw himself portrayed on the big screen by hunky Ryan Reynolds in the movie “Woman in Gold,” he immediately spotted a difference.

How much money did Maria Altmann get?

On January 16, 2006, the arbitration panel ruled that Austria was legally required to return the art to Altmann and the other family heirs, and in March of the same year Austria returned the paintings. The paintings were estimated to be collectively worth at least $150 million when returned.

Who bought the Lady in Gold?

philanthropist Ronald LauderThe result was the return of all the Klimt paintings. Jewish philanthropist Ronald Lauder bought the Woman in Gold portrait for $135 million to display at his museum, the Neue Galerie in New York. The other Klimt paintings sold for another $192 million.

Where is Klimt's Adele now?

Neue Galerie New YorkPrivate collectionPortrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I/Locations

Did Maria Altmann get her necklace?

She had just married opera singer Fritz Altmann and her uncle had given her Adele's diamond earrings and a necklace as a wedding present. But the Nazis stole them from her — the stunning necklace she wore on her wedding day was sent to Nazi leader Hermann Göring as a present for his wife.

How much is the woman in gold worth today?

So it made sense for us to sell the most valuable piece at $130 million on a private basis, and with that comparable established in the market, to offer the other four pieces at auction. ' Altmann's Klimt paintings were sold at a record-breaking Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art auction in November 2006.

Is Maria Altmann still alive?

February 7, 2011Maria Altmann / Date of death

Is Woman in Gold true story?

Woman in Gold is based on the true story of Maria Altmann, an Austrian Jewish woman who escaped the Nazis and found a home in the US, from where, in 1999, as an old woman, she began a sensational legal campaign to reclaim from the Austrian government several paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis – chiefly ...

What happened to Maria Altmann's husband Fritz?

Fritz died in 1994. Altmann's quiet life ended abruptly in 1998, when Czernin announced his discovery.

How much is the Mona Lisa worth?

$850 millionThe Mona Lisa is believed to be worth more than $850 million, taking into account inflation. In 1962, it was insured for $100 million, holding the Guinness World Record for highest ever insurance value in the art market (corresponding to $870 million in 2021).

Who owns Adele Bloch-Bauer II Portrait?

The buyer was Oprah Winfrey. In the fall of 2014, Adele Bloch-Bauer II was given as a special long-term loan to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. During the summer of 2016, Oprah Winfrey sold it to an unidentified Chinese buyer for $150 million.

What is the most a painting has ever sold for?

US$450.3 millionThis is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. The current record price is approximately US$450.3 million (which includes commission), paid for Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi in November 2017.

How many paintings did Maria Altmann get back?

Maria Altmann brought suit in the United States against the Republic of Austria and the Austrian National Gallery to recover six paintings by Gustav Klimt that the Nazis took during the Second World War from her Jewish relatives, Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer.

What happened to Maria Altmann's husband Fritz?

Fritz died in 1994. Altmann's quiet life ended abruptly in 1998, when Czernin announced his discovery.

Where is Maria Altmann buried?

Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, CAMaria Altmann / Place of burialThe Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary is a Jewish cemetery located at 6001 West Centinela Avenue, in Culver City, California. Many Jews from the entertainment industry are buried here. Wikipedia

Did Maria Altmann have children?

Margie CrainMaria Altmann / Children

Who played Randol in Woman in Gold?

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — When attorney E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg saw himself portrayed on the big screen by hunky Ryan Reynolds in the movie “Woman in Gold,” he immediately spotted a difference.

How much did Klimt sell for?

Four other works by Klimt, a later portrait of Adele and three landscapes, were later auctioned off for nearly $193 million, bringing the total for Altmann and some close relatives to some $326 million.

Who painted Adele Bloch-Bauer?

Between 1903 and 1907, Klimt painted Adele in a gold-flecked portrait, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” which to the Viennese embodied the glamor and beauty of their city and was dubbed the “Austrian Mona Lisa.”

Who ruled in Maria Altmann's favor?

Despite facing a battery of experienced lawyers representing both the Austrian and American governments, the justices ruled 6 to 3 in Maria Altmann’s favor. Austria did not recognize the American verdict and, in another major gamble, Schoenberg agreed to submit the dispute to an arbitration panel of three Austrian experts. Again, against all odds, the panel ruled in Altmann’s favor.

Who was Bloch-Bauer's wife?

Bloch-Bauer’s wife, Adele, reigned over a glittering salon attended by Vienna’s leading artists and intellectuals. A frequent guest was Gustav Klimt, the most sought-after painter in Austria, as famous for for seducing the subjects of his portraits as for his innovative style.

Who is Maria Altmann?

The movie focuses on the relationship between Maria Altmann, the elderly descendant of one of the wealthiest and most prominent Jewish families in Vienna, and a young, unproven lawyer who took on the Austrian and American governments to recover what was then the most expensive painting in the world.

How much did Schoenberg make in his lifetime?

Schoenberg declined to spell out his share of that sum, but media reports generally put the figure at about $139 million.

Who played Maria Altmann in Woman in Gold?

Schoenberg is portrayed by Ryan Reynolds .

Who represented Maria Altmann in her suit?

Legal career. Schoenberg represented Maria Altmann in her suit to obtain five Gustav Klimt paintings from the estate of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer as well as the "Palais", the Viennese house in which the paintings had been housed.

Who won the Klimt case?

Altmann won her case before the Supreme Court of the United States against the government of Austria in Republic of Austria v. Altmann in 2004. Schoenberg operated on a contingent fee basis and reportedly received 40% of the proceeds from the Klimt paintings, amounting to a legal fee of over $120 million.

Who is Randol Schoenberg's grandmother?

He is the grandson of two Austrian composers: Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl. His parents are Ronald R. Schoenberg and Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg. His grandmother Gertrud Schoenberg was the sister of violinist Rudolf Kolisch. His aunt Nuria is the widow of the Italian composer Luigi Nono. Both "Randol" and "Ronald" (father of E. Randol) are anagrams of "Arnold" (grandfather of E. Randol).

Who is the curator of Geni?

Schoenberg served as president of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust from 2005 to 2015. He is an avid genealogist and serves as a volunteer curator for Geni.com, one of its most active users, managing over 150,000 profiles. He is a board member of JewishGen and the Co-Founder of its Austria-Czech Special Interest Group. . He is the author of the Beginner's Guide to Austrian-Jewish Genealogy and the co-author of Getting Started with Czech-Jewish Genealogy.

Background

Gustav Klimt was born in 1862 in Baumgarten, near Vienna in Austria-Hungary. He attended the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (German: Kunstgewerbeschule Wien) before taking on commissions with his brother, Ernst, and a fellow-student Franz von Matsch from 1879.

The painting

In mid-1903 Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer commissioned Klimt to paint a portrait of his wife; he wished to give the piece to Adele's parents as an anniversary present that October. Klimt drew over a hundred preparatory sketches for the portrait between 1903 and 1904.

Reception

Klimt exhibited his portrait at the 1907 Mannheim International Art Show, alongside the Portrait of Fritza Riedler (1906). Many of the critics had negative reactions to the two paintings, describing them as "mosaic-like wall-grotesqueries", "bizarre", "absurdities" and "vulgarities".

History and ownership

After exhibition at the Kunstschau, the portrait was hung at the Bloch-Bauers' Vienna residence. In 1912 Ferdinand commissioned a second painting of his wife, in which "the erotic charge of the likeness of 1907 has been spent", according to Whitford.

Legacy

The history of the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I and the other paintings taken from the Bloch-Bauers has been recounted in three documentary films, Stealing Klimt (2007), The Rape of Europa (2007) and Adele's Wish (2008).

External links

Fortune article by Tyler Green about Ronald Lauder and the Neue Galerie's acquisition of the painting.

Who stole Adele's earrings?

She had just married opera singer Fritz Altmann and her uncle had given her Adele's diamond earrings and a necklace as a wedding present. But the Nazis stole them from her — the stunning necklace she wore on her wedding day was sent to Nazi leader Hermann Göring as a present for his wife.

Who played Maria Altmann in Woman in Gold?

The first and most famous of the two later became known as Woman in Gold. The 2015 film focuses on Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann, played by Helen Mirren, and her quest to reclaim the famous Klimt painting from the Austrian government, but there is a lot more to her story.

Why did Altmann send her a sweater?

He sent Altmann a cashmere sweater to see if Americans might like the fine, soft wool. Altmann took the sweater to a department store in Beverly Hills, which agreed to sell them. Other stores across the country followed suit, and Altmann eventually opened her own clothing boutique.

What did Adele die of?

In 1925, Adele died of meningitis at the age of 44.

Who was Maria Altmann?

Altmann led a charmed childhood. Maria Viktoria Bloch-Bauer was born to Gustav Bloch-Bauer and Therese Bauer on February 18, 1916, in Vienna, Austria. Her wealthy Jewish family, including her uncle Ferdinand and aunt Adele, were close to the artists of the Vienna Secession movement, which Klimt helped establish in 1897.

Who paid $135 million to enshrine Adele's face?

Altmann said her Aunt Adele had always wanted her golden portrait in a public gallery. Ronald Lauder , a businessman and philanthropist who had loved Adele's face from boyhood, happily paid $135 million to enshrine her in his Neue Galerie in Manhattan. At the time, it was the largest sum ever purchased for a painting.

Who is the Jewish refugee in Woman in Gold?

The titular character in Woman in Gold is Adele Bloch-Bauer, whose husband, ...

Who was the legal owner of Woman in Gold?

Altmann needed to obtain proof that Adele’s stated wish to leave the paintings to the Belvedere Museum was superseded by the will of Ferdinand (the legal owner), who named his nieces as heirs, and secure a ruling from the United States Supreme Court, permitting her to sue Austria in an American court.

Who painted the woman in gold?

The Woman in Gold. The mesmerising radiance of Adele Bloch-Bauer’ s gaze in Gustav Klimt’s gold-flecked 1907 portrait of her provides no hint of the turbulent fate that lay in store for the painting. Commissioned by her sugar-industrialist husband Ferdinand, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I took Klimt three years to create, ...

Why did Lash have a ringside seat?

Lash had a ringside seat as Altmann fought her legal battle against the Austrian government to reclaim her family’s property.

When did Maria Altmann start a legal battle?

When the Austrian government passed a restitution law in 1998, ruling that property stolen by the Nazis could be returned to its rightful owners, Maria Altmann — now in her 80s — began a legal battle to regain the Klimts that belonged to her family, which included a second portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

When did Altmann sell his Klimt paintings?

Altmann’s four Klimt paintings were sold at a record-breaking Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in November 2006. ‘It was one of the most extraordinary sales I was ever involved in,’ recalls the evening’s auctioneer, Christopher Burge. ‘The highlight was the Klimts, which far and away exceeded anything we thought they were going to bring.’ For Lash the sale reinforced the notion that, ‘The auction world is a business based on relationships, not transactions.’ Prior to joining Christie’s he was a Vice-President at S.G. Warburg & Co, and paraphrasing Siegmund Warburg’s dictum on bankers, he says, ‘You can’t be someone’s auctioneer until you’re their friend. Maria Altmann was my friend.’

When did Klimt sell his paintings?

Altmann’s four Klimt paintings were sold at a record-breaking Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in November 2006. ‘It was one of the most extraordinary sales I was ever involved in,’ recalls the evening’s auctioneer, Christopher Burge.

Where is the Klimt painting Adele?

Targeted amid the Nazis’ cultural looting spree, it was one of five Klimt paintings taken from the Bloch-Bauer residence, with the pictures ending up in Vienna’s Belvedere Gallery.

Who painted the woman in gold?

In researching the Woman in Gold true story, we discovered that Gustav Klimt 's 1907 painting was originally titled "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I," named for the woman who posed for it, Maria Altmann's Aunt Adele. It was the first of two portraits that Klimt painted of Adele. The second was fittingly titled "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II" and was completed in 1912.

How much did Maria Altmann sell her painting to Ronald Lauder?

Maria Altmann poses with the painting of her Aunt Adele, which she would sell to cosmetics mogul Ronald Lauder for $135 million.

Why was Maria Altmann's husband Fritz arrested?

The movie omits events prior to this, when Maria's husband Fritz was arrested by the Nazis and held at the Dachau concentration camp for nearly two months in order to force his brother Bernhard, who had already escaped to France, to transfer his prosperous Bernhard Altmann textile factory into German hands.

How much did Randy make working on Maria's case?

How did Randy make money while he worked on Maria's case? After quitting his job, Randy says that he made only $20,000 the first year he worked on Maria's case, scraping together money from other cases he worked on the side. However, the movie omits the fact that after that first year, Randy joined a partnership that gave him a salary and the freedom to go after the Klimt paintings. -LATimes.com

What does the woman in gold mean?

The Woman in Gold movie implies that Maria Altmann did not care about the value of the paintings and that she simply wanted to right a wrong. In a moment of humor, Helen Mirren's character states that it would be nice to buy a new washing machine.

What is Gustav Klimt's second portrait of Adele?

Gustav Klimt's second portrait of Adele (top), titled "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II," also features Adele in the diamond necklace. Maria helps her Aunt Adele with the necklace in the movie (bottom).

How long did the fight to reclaim the paintings last?

Ms. Altmann's fight to reclaim the paintings lasted approximately eight years, from 1998 until 2006. The movie significantly shortens the timeframe.

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Overview

Eric Randol Schoenberg (born September 12, 1966) is an American lawyer and genealogist, based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in legal cases related to the recovery of looted or stolen artworks, particularly those by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.
Schoenberg is widely known as one of the central figures of the 2015 film Wo…

Early life

E. Randol Schoenberg was born to a Jewish American family of Austrian Jewish descent in 1966. He is the grandson of two Austrian-Jewish composers: Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl. His parents are Ronald R. Schoenberg and Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg. His grandmother Gertrud Schoenberg was the sister of Jewish violinist Rudolf Kolisch. His aunt Nuria is the widow of the Italian composer Luigi Nono. His younger sister Marlena Fejzo is a medical scientist. Both "Rando…

Legal career

Schoenberg represented Maria Altmann in her suit to obtain five Gustav Klimt paintings from the estate of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer as well as the "Palais", the Viennese house in which the paintings had been housed. Altmann won her case before the Supreme Court of the United States against the government of Austria in Republic of Austria v. Altmann in 2004. Schoenberg operated on a contingent fee basis and reportedly received 40% of the proceeds from the Klimt paintings, a…

Philanthropy and genealogy

Schoenberg served as president of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust from 2005 to 2015. He is an avid genealogist and serves as a volunteer curator for Geni.com, one of its most active users, managing over 150,000 profiles. He is a board member of JewishGen and the Co-Founder of its Austria-Czech Special Interest Group. . He is the author of the Beginner's Guide to Austrian-Jewish Genealogy and the co-author of Getting Started with Czech-Jewish Genealogy.

Personal life

Schoenberg resides in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, with his wife, Pamela Mayers Schoenberg. They have two sons and a daughter.

External links

• Resumé at Burris, Schoenberg & Walden LLP
• Geni Profile

Overview

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (also called The Lady in Gold or The Woman in Gold) is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer [de], a Jewish banker and sugar producer. The painting was stolen by the Nazis in 1941 and displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. The portrait is th…

Background

Gustav Klimt was born in 1862 in Baumgarten, near Vienna in Austria-Hungary. He attended the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (German: Kunstgewerbeschule Wien) before taking on commissions with his brother, Ernst, and a fellow-student Franz von Matsch from 1879. Over the next decade, alongside several private commissions for portraiture, they painted interior murals and ceilings in large p…

The painting

In mid-1903 Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer commissioned Klimt to paint a portrait of his wife; he wished to give the piece to Adele's parents as an anniversary present that October. Klimt drew over a hundred preparatory sketches for the portrait between 1903 and 1904. The Bloch-Bauers purchased some of the sketches he had made of Adele when they obtained 16 Klimt drawings. In Dec…

Reception

Klimt exhibited his portrait at the 1907 Mannheim International Art Show, alongside the Portrait of Fritza Riedler (1906). Many of the critics had negative reactions to the two paintings, describing them as "mosaic-like wall-grotesqueries", "bizarre", "absurdities" and "vulgarities".
In 1908 the portrait was exhibited at the Kunstschau in Vienna where critical re…

History and ownership

After exhibition at the Kunstschau, the portrait was hung at the Bloch-Bauer's Vienna residence. In 1912 Ferdinand commissioned a second painting of his wife, in which "the erotic charge of the likeness of 1907 has been spent", according to Whitford. In February 1918, Klimt suffered a stroke and was hospitalised; he caught pneumonia due to the worldwide influenza epidemic an…

Legacy

The history of the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I and the other paintings taken from the Bloch-Bauers has been recounted in three documentary films, Stealing Klimt (2007), The Rape of Europa (2007) and Adele's Wish (2008). The painting's history is described in the 2012 book The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, by the journalist Anne-Marie O'Connor. The history, as well as other stories of other stolen art, is told b…

See also

• Art repatriation
• List of most expensive paintings

External links

• stealingklimt.com
• Fortune article by Tyler Green about Ronald Lauder and the Neue Galerie's acquisition of the painting.
• Austrian Arbitral Award, "Maria V. Altmann and others v. Republic of Austria", 6 May 2006. (in German)