Wednesday, February 14, 2018

"A Long-Lost Klimt Drawing Just Turned Up in a Former Museum Secretary’s Cupboard"

As noted in  
October 2012
"The Greatest Fake-Art Scam in History?" 
For some reason saying "Would you like to come up and see mein Campendonk" doesn't elicit the same response as "Would You Like to Come Up and See Mein Klimt?"....

From artnetNews:

A Long-Lost Klimt Drawing Just Turned Up in a Former Museum Secretary’s Cupboard
A Gustav Klimt drawing that disappeared from an Austrian museum has turned up in the cupboard of a recently deceased former secretary of the institution. The woman, who reportedly took and hid the work years ago, left a will describing the drawing’s location and asking for it to be returned upon her death.

The drawing, Zwei Liegende (Two Reclining Figures), was taken from the Lentos Museum in the city of Linz. It was one of four works by Klimt and fellow Austrian artist Egon Schiele that were subject to a drawn-out lawsuit between the city and the heirs of the artist and collector Olga Jäger. Jäger had loaned the four works to the museum in 1951.

Following her death in 2006, Jäger’s heirs asked for the works to be returned, but they could not be found. Last year, the Austrian Supreme Court ruled the museum must pay a total of €8.2 million ($10.1 million) in compensation for the loss, including €100,000 ($124,000) for the Klimt drawing.
Gustav Klimt Two Reclining Female Nudes (ca. 1916/1917). Photo: Reinhard Haider, courtesy of Lentos Museum, Linz.
Three works by Egon Schiele—an oil painting, a watercolor, and a drawing—are still missing. According to a spokesperson for the city of Linz, there are “no serious indications” that the works were in the possession of the former Lentos Museum secretary....MORE
Previously on Klimt
February 2017 
"Oprah Said to Snag $150 Million Selling Klimt to Chinese Buyer"
https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i49dXW_9kI8c/v3/400x-1.jpg

From  2012's "Would You Like to Come Up and See Mein Klimt?" (naturally):
...Here's the one Ronald (Thanks Mom)  Lauder dropped $135 mil. on:
(NYT)
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907)