Industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer commissioned Klimt to paint five works, including two portraits of his wife,
Adele Bloch-Bauer. "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (1907) made her a celebrity. The works were seized by the Nazis when they annexed Austria in 1938. It wasn't until 2006 that Austria gave the works to Adele's niece
Maria Altmann after a seven year legal battle. Maria sold "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" to
Ronald Lauder for a then-record $135 million. The case is the basis of the film
La femme au tableau (2015).
