Her husband commissioned
Gustav Klimt to do five works, including two portraits of Adele. "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (1907), in which Klimt has Adele sitting on a golden throne, made her a celebrity. In her will, Adele requested that her husband donate the Klimts to the Austrian Gallery. The works were seized by the Nazis when they annexed Austria in 1938. It wasn't until 2006 that Austria finally
gave the paintings to Adele's niece
Maria Altmann after a seven
year legal battle. Maria sold "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" to later that year
to
Ronald Lauder for a then-record $135 million.
