Woman in Gold

556 00:37:28,420 --> 00:37:30,960 two years before she died. 557 00:37:31,060 --> 00:37:34,240 Her signature. Oh, my God. 558 00:37:34,340 --> 00:37:36,120 I'll translate as accurately as I can. 559 00:37:36,220 --> 00:37:38,480 "I kindly ask my husband 560 00:37:38,580 --> 00:37:39,960 "to bequeath my portrait 561 00:37:40,060 --> 00:37:42,301 "and the other Klimt paintings after his death 562 00:37:42,420 --> 00:37:44,070 to the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna." 563 00:37:48,100 --> 00:37:49,800 So she did leave them to the gallery. 564 00:37:49,900 --> 00:37:53,160 Oh, Randy, have we come all this way for nothing? 565 00:37:53,260 --> 00:37:55,024 HUBERTUS: One step at a time, Maria. 566 00:37:55,140 --> 00:37:57,480 She does, in fact, request for the paintings to go 567 00:37:57,580 --> 00:38:00,760 to the Belvedere, but the request has a very specific condition attached to it. 568 00:38:00,860 --> 00:38:02,320 She specifically asks the paintings 569 00:38:02,420 --> 00:38:05,000 go to the Belvedere after Ferdinand's death. 570 00:38:05,100 --> 00:38:06,800 HUBERTUS: Let's tell the story chronologically. 571 00:38:06,900 --> 00:38:08,709 Maria, do you have any idea of what happened 572 00:38:08,820 --> 00:38:10,800 to your family's property after you got away? 573 00:38:10,900 --> 00:38:13,640 Not at all. Unlike Lot's wife, I never looked back. 574 00:38:13,740 --> 00:38:15,230 Maybe now it's time to know. 575 00:38:16,660 --> 00:38:18,760 After you escaped Austria, Maria, your home 576 00:38:18,860 --> 00:38:21,909 became the scene of one of the great thefts of the time. 577 00:38:24,140 --> 00:38:25,720 HUBERTUS: Your family's belongings 578 00:38:25,820 --> 00:38:27,520 ended up in the hands of the most powerful 579 00:38:27,620 --> 00:38:29,190 criminals of the Nazi elite. 580 00:38:29,300 --> 00:38:31,760 All of our things, our personal things? 581 00:38:31,860 --> 00:38:34,600 Did you know, for instance, that one of your uncle's favorite paintings, 582 00:38:34,700 --> 00:38:36,080 a Waldmüller portrait of Count Esterhazy... 583 00:38:36,180 --> 00:38:37,360 MARIA: Yes, yes, I remember. 584 00:38:37,460 --> 00:38:38,800 It was hanging in the living room. 585 00:38:38,900 --> 00:38:40,800 I never liked it, actually. 586 00:38:40,900 --> 00:38:44,880 HUBERTUS: ...ended up decorating the walls of no less a place than the Berghof, 587 00:38:44,980 --> 00:38:48,160 Hitler's private residence in the Bavarian Alps? 588 00:38:48,260 --> 00:38:49,705 Or that your aunt's necklace, 589 00:38:49,820 --> 00:38:51,880 the same one she wears in the Klimt portrait, 590 00:38:51,980 --> 00:38:53,960 came to adorn the neck of Emmy Goering, 591 00:38:54,060 --> 00:38:56,040 Hermann Goering's wife? 592 00:38:56,140 --> 00:38:58,160 I don't think I want to hear this. 593 00:38:58,260 --> 00:39:00,000 The Nazis themselves were not so keen on the Klimts. 594 00:39:00,100 --> 00:39:01,960 They were, after all, a bit too degenerate for their taste. 595 00:39:02,060 --> 00:39:04,800 But the paintings caught the eye of someone 596 00:39:04,900 --> 00:39:08,320 with a more prescient and refined appreciation of art, 597 00:39:08,420 --> 00:39:11,185 - Bruno Grimshitz. - Grimshitz?! 598 00:39:11,300 --> 00:39:13,280 The paintings were taken off the walls of your family home 599 00:39:13,380 --> 00:39:15,760 and carefully transported to the Belvedere. 600 00:39:15,860 --> 00:39:18,120 Certain facts had to be altered, 601 00:39:18,220 --> 00:39:21,000 like your aunt's name and her Jewish provenance, of course. 602 00:39:21,100 --> 00:39:22,720 For a short while after the war, 603 00:39:22,820 --> 00:39:24,640 she became simply known as... 604 00:39:24,740 --> 00:39:26,480 "Woman in Gold." 605 00:39:26,580 --> 00:39:29,600 So her identity was stolen as well. 606 00:39:29,700 --> 00:39:32,760 It wasn't enough to rob your family and try to destroy it. 607 00:39:32,860 --> 00:39:36,120 No. You had to be eradicated from history. 608 00:39:36,220 --> 00:39:37,720 So the paintings reached the Belvedere. 609 00:39:37,820 --> 00:39:39,080 In 1941. 610 00:39:39,180 --> 00:39:40,600 Your uncle, Maria, died... 611 00:39:40,700 --> 00:39:43,120 At the end of the war, 1945. 612 00:39:43,220 --> 00:39:45,240 So, contrary to the request in Adele's will, 613 00:39:45,340 --> 00:39:48,520 the paintings ended up in the Belvedere well before his death. 614 00:39:48,620 --> 00:39:51,120 HUBERTUS: And if I'm not mistaken, he wrote his own will before he died. 615 00:39:51,220 --> 00:39:52,440 MARIA: Yes, he did. 616 00:39:52,540 --> 00:39:55,360 HUBERTUS: Leaving everything he owned, or at least what was left of it, 617 00:39:55,460 --> 00:39:57,360 to you and your sister, his only living heirs. 618 00:39:57,460 --> 00:40:00,160 It was on