Another Look at the Klimts

I just read “Whose Art Is It Anyway?” (by Anne-Marie O’Connor, Dec. 16). She handled the complicated facts well, making a fascinating drama. Impressive, thorough, tasteful, remarkable.

Ken Hubbard

Santa Monica

*

As a Jew whose family was touched by the Holocaust, I share the anger of Adele Bloch-Bauer’s descendants for the sad, unjust way her portrait and other Bloch-Bauer family-owned paintings ended up in the museum in Austria. But they have to rise above their personal claims--to that high moral ground that gave them the right to demand the return of the paintings in the first place--and realize that Gustav Klimt’s masterpieces do not belong to them; they belong to all people. Masterpieces can’t be divided and locked up like bonds or real estate. No matter what the legal reasoning is behind their ownership. No matter who paid to have them produced. They are just too magnificent for that. Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann could show she inherited some of her aunt’s greatness if she let go of her claim and allowed everyone to enjoy these timeless paintings at a public museum.

Lane Igoudin

Long Beach

*

O’Connor should be commended for her thorough report. I loved the story and the way it was written. Altmann clearly is not poor regarding dignity but poor because she is the victim of the Austrians who stole property from her family. Nobody should be allowed to get away with what was done to them.

Howard Siegman

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