HETALIA BELONGS TO HIDEKAZ HIMARUYA
ADELE BLOCH-BAUER (1881-1925), MARIA ALTMANN (1916-2011), GUSTAV KLIMT (1862-1918) AND OTHERS WERE REAL PEOPLE.
1907
Austria never believed in love at first sight until he saw her.
Her name was Adele Bloch-Bauer.
Oh, but he was not in love with the wife of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, the wealthy owner of that sugar factory and patron of arts. No, no. Actually, what he loved was the image of her that Gustav had on his head.
Austria was there the day he painted it. Bloch-Bauer was one of Gustav's benefactors, loved his work, although not as much as Austria did. Every time Gustav got an order, Austria needed to be there to watch the process. The Bloch-Bauers didn't mind about it, all the contrary, even. After all, it was such a big honor for any Austrian to have their nation at home. He responded politely to all their attentions, while his only goal was watching Gustav capture Mrs. Bloch-Bauer's features, fill the canvas with forms and gold.
The result made his heart bounce. He watched it for so long the model smiled at him:
"Do you like it, Mr. Austria?"
How could words express what Austria was feeling? 'Yes' wasn't even close.
"You will be in this world for so much longer than us. We won't be able to take this where we will go. I will make sure it will be yours."
That was what she said...
Adele wouldn't live much longer. In 1925, she died because of a meningitis, still young, still beautiful.
Austria, being close to people who were close to the family, found out that she kept her word. In her last will, she kindly recommended her widower to donate the portraits Gustav had painted for them to Austria, so he could share it with everyone.
Austria was a man of very strong principles: if a loved one, the wife, no less, told a man it would be nice to give someone a gift, he had to do it as soon as possible. But Mr. Bloch-Bauer kept Austria waiting.
After all, some friends said to Austria, it was just a recommendation, not a legal binding.
But Austria had been dreaming about that picture for eighteen years...
Maybe...With just a little patience, he told himself...
And, indeed, time resulted to be his best ally. Because, with time, the seed of hate planted inside Germany's chest grew, made him stronger, harder, wiser, unstoppable. He became big, and many things changed...
1938
It seemed Mr. Bloch-Bauer wasn't very sure of the advantages of the annexation of Austria to the emerging German empire, or maybe he did what all the Jews did best, which was running away the moment they smelt trouble; as soon as Germany laid a foot on Austria's house, he left. Some said he went to Switzerland, but who knew for sure. The thing was that good old Ferdinand couldn't put a lot of things in his suitcase. His factory. His houses. All of his fortune...
The portraits...
Klimt had a special charm, Germany had to admit it. He understood why Austria had a special place for him in his heart.
He watched the portrait of this woman in gold for long, admiring the composition, the beauty of the woman, the gold...
"Which charges?" Germany didn't even bat an eye when his partner asked him. He said the first thing coming to his mind. "Tax evasion. Mr. Bloch-Bauer is nowhere to be found, so I guess that makes him a suspect. No innocent man flees just like that."
According to the law, the properties of all criminals would be confiscated. Everything in that house was now property of the Reich. Germany would sell those portraits to Austria for a good price. A friend's price. He knew how much Austria liked these, and what he would to do add them to his collection...
And so Austria could hang the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer on a wall in the National Gallery, for his great pleasure...
1946
Things didn't go as expected. For many reasons, Germany and the Axis lost the war, had to face punishment. Austria was freed by the Allies, declaring Germany's occupation legally null and void, even though he certainly didn't offer much resistance and even agreed with some of his policies. It was time to be controlled by the winners and recompose what the war had destroyed, which was much. In fact, war had given him little more than destruction and poverty.
It was better to earn the winner's favor, so Austria showed his good will by signing the Annulment Act, by which he undid every Nazi policy carried out during the German occupation.
It was time to look at the future with nervousness but hope, but Austria found himself travelling back to the past again and again. Sat in front of the portrait, the past seemed golden, placid, beautiful...
1998
No one was kind or even polite enough to tell him to the face, he had to find out from the press. He was taking a look at the newspapers and magazines in one newsstand when a headline caught his attention:
«SCHIELE'S PORTRAIT OF WALLY TO REMAIN IN NEW YORK. AUSTRIA IS ACCUSED OF KEEPING STOLEN ART IN HIS GALLERY»
He bought the newspaper and read it in his usual café, reading one line and reflecting about it for several minutes before jumping to the next, thinking about it and so on. When he finished, he went home and played the piano for an hour or so to get rid of the unpleasant feelings he had gotten from the reading, so he had a clear mind.
He had lent several paintings to America, for an exhibition in New York, and it seemed he was not having them back. Someone had recognized Schiele's. Someone had been asking too many questions about the origin of those works of art. Now it seemed a debate had started about his person, his decency.
Unacceptable. He was not some vulgar thief. And he had documents to prove it. That is what he did. He offered his archives to whoever wanted to search into them to prove his innocence. Everybody knew what America was like, the young boy, always wanting to be the hero of the story, hungry for recognition and justice...
Unfortunately for him, a journalist did exactly that and published very harsh words, because it turned out the traces of some works of art were...not very clear...Austria kept his article when he found it on a newspaper. This man claimed that Bloch-Bauer never donated Klimt's portraits and he knew it perfectly.
His government pressed him, the other nations looked at him in a way he didn't like. Maybe they were right and it was time to do the right, hurtful thing. Months later, Austria signed the Restitution Law, by which he promised to give the stolen goods back to their rightful owners. He was sad to see some of those marvels go, but one had to do some unpleasant things, he supposed, because it was the decent thing to do.
Oh, but when that woman, Mrs. Altmann, claimed to be the rightful owner of the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer...His firm convictions faltered then.
The committee rejected her petition, and Austria honestly (and very naively) thought that was the end of it.
"She will have to spend almost two million dollars in taxes to sue me." He said to himself. "She can't do that. She can't afford it."
But she had to get that lawyer, Schoenberg, and go to her nation, America...And, again, America loved being humanity's David against Golliaths...And so Austria found in his mailbox a letter in which he was told that he was being sued.
He, a nation, had just being sued by a mortal woman.
2006
He had tried it all. There was nothing else he could do...
"Dude, you really should give up."
Austria frowned at that 'dude', but he supposed he couldn't ask America for much correction. After all, and he had noticed, he was wearing sport shoes with a suit. Like if these were just holidays in Europe...Like a walk in the park...So sure of his victory that there was no need for formalities...
"You've tried and you failed. If you don't accept arbitration, you'll end up at the court, and things are looking grim for you."
Austria turned his eyes to the lady, Maria Altmann. She was like eighty years old but so firm, so powerful looking. She was as sure of her rightfulness as America. Austria didn't find any feature which resembled her uncle's. Maybe it was all a show. A fake...Maybe he could still find something that could throw her pretensions overboard...
"I am asking you again, Mr. Austria, because I want this to be solved in the less expensive, exhausting, embarrassing way for both of us." She said.
She wanted to steal his treasure...
Austria's right hand made him a gesture to get out of the room and talk in the hallway, away from everyone. Austria trusted him because he knew the law like the Lord's Prayer. Even he was dead serious and gave him that look...
"Mr. Austria, they are right. You heard what the judge said: you can be sued by America even though all of this happened before the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act was published. Expropriation of property is contemplated as an exception, and it's applied retroactively...You promised to give everything back, you promised..."
"But Manfred, that woman..."
"That woman's got everything in her favor. Bloch-Bauer's testament refers to her and her late siblings as his rightful heirs. You said you would give everything back to the heirs, everything you took away from them, all the art you requested in exchange of..."
"She can't take care of such a valuable work of art! She's a common civilian, with no idea about arts or money! She couldn't possibly appreciate..."
"That may be true, but it is still the portrait of her late aunt. It's her heritage."
"Adele herself said in her will..."
"It was not binding. His widower had no intention of giving it to you."
He couldn't...He didn't want to...
"Please. Do you know what will happen if we go to court? It will be terribly long and expensive to battle against America. He will make your life a living hell. And if your life is hell, then ours will be. Please. Accept the arbitration. We can ask half of the members to be Austrian or to be carried out here, if that makes you feel more comfortable. Come on, Mr. Austria. It's just a painting..."
Nobody understood...Nobody was alive back then, nobody knew the placidness of those days, they didn't see Klimt work, they didn't see Adele's real beauty...
But in the end his practical sense won, and accepted arbitration. Three of its members were Austrian, and it took place in his house.
After a long negotiation, Austria accepted to let Mrs. Altmann take the picture with her, and pay for the costs of the litigation. America was delighted to defeat the Nazis once again.
Austria only requested one thing: to be left alone with Adele one last time.
To say goodbye, to the old times, to the golden gleams, the rosy lips of Adele, Gustav's hand on the canvas...
Since he was alone, he allowed himself a little misbehavior: he walked to it and ran a finger through one of its circles, delicately, as if he was grazing the skin of a loved one.
Seeing it go felt like someone was ripping off his arm.
Knowing Mrs. Altmann almost immediately auctioned it in Christie's for 88 million dollars, to help finance the costs of her adventure, made it ache even more. That old fool didn't even keep it as a family relic, she never appreciated it for the treasure it was...It would surely end up in a richman's yatch or hanging on the wall of some yuppie's luxury appartment...
Money...Always money...No one thought of Adele...The idealized form of Adele, immortal by Gustav's hand...They couldn't see past the value of his signature...
He had done everything to keep it where all of his people, the tourists, art lovers like him, could appreciate it through the years, the decades, the centuries...
No one knew but him, and they had taken it away from him, leaving a mark on the wall and in his heart...
THE END
The so called "Woman in gold" can be seen, along with other Klimt works, at the Neue Galerie in New York.