She got the Klimts, now home’s returned too

Maria Altmann, the Austrian-born woman who has been awarded five Gustav Klimt paintings seized by Nazis, also has been granted a stake in a historic building in downtown Vienna.

An arbitration panel in Austria recommended that the so-called Palais, estimated to be worth about $6 million, should be returned to Altmann’s family. The decision was made Monday and received by Altmann, who lives in Los Angeles, Wednesday. Austria has said it will abide by the panel’s decision.

The ruling follows the return to Altmann of five multimillion-dollar Klimt paintings, which were taken by Nazis in 1938. The building was owned by Altmann’s aunt and uncle, Adele and Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who hosted salons that attracted artists including composer Gustav Mahler and writer Arthur Schnitzler early in the 20th century. Altmann, 90, will receive a 25% stake in the building.

“This was the house where the Klimt paintings were housed,” said E. Randol Schoenberg, Altmann’s lawyer. “This was the house where Maria would go to have lunch with her aunt and uncle and see the paintings.”

Altmann’s family bought the building, close to Vienna’s opera house, in 1919. Her aunt and uncle lived in the building, Schoenberg said. Since 1945, the site has been home to Austria’s railroad headquarters.

In 1956, the Altmann family agreed to give up the building to gain back the rights to the shares of a family sugar business. The panel considered the family to be the victim of an “extreme injustice” in the original agreement, Schoenberg said.