''Republic of Austria v. Altmann'', 541 U.S. 677 (2004), was a case in which the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

held that the

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) is a United States law, codified at Title 28, §§ 1330, 1332, 1391(f), 1441(d), and 1602–1611 of the United States Code, that established criteria as to whether a foreign sovereign nation ( ...

, or FSIA, applies retroactively. It is one of the most recent cases that deals with the "anti-retroactivity doctrine", which is a doctrine that holds that courts should not construe a statute to apply retroactively (to apply to situations that arose before it was enacted) unless there is a clear statutory intent that it should do so. This means that, regarding lawsuits filed after its enactment, the FSIA standards of

sovereign immunity Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a legal doctrine whereby a sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution, strictly speaking in modern texts in its own courts. A similar, stronger ...

and its exceptions apply even to conduct that took place before 1976. Since the FSIA is only a codification of existing well settled international law, Austria was deemed not immune from litigation. The result of this case for the

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of t ...

, Maria Altmann, was that she was authorized to proceed with a civil action against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in a

U.S. federal district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

for recovery of five paintings stolen by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

from her relatives and then housed in an Austrian government museum. As the Supreme Court noted in its decision, Altmann had already tried suing the museum before in Austria, but was forced to voluntarily dismiss her case because of Austria's rule that

court costs Court costs (also called law costs in English procedure) are the costs of handling a case, which, depending on legal rules, may or may not include the costs of the various parties in a lawsuit in addition to the costs of the court itself. In the ...

are proportional to the

amount in controversy Amount in controversy (sometimes called jurisdictional amount) is a term used in civil procedure to denote the amount at stake in a lawsuit, in particular in connection with a requirement that persons seeking to bring a lawsuit in a particular cour ...

(in this case, the enormous monetary value of the paintings). Under Austrian law, the filing fee for such a lawsuit is determined as a percentage of the recoverable amount. At the time, the five paintings were estimated to be worth approximately US$135 million, making the filing fee over US$1.5 million. Although the Austrian courts later reduced this amount to $350,000, this was still too much for Altmann, and she dropped her case in the Austrian court system. The high court remanded the case for trial in the Los Angeles district court. Back in the district court, both parties agreed to

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ...

in Austria in 2005, which in turn ruled in favor of Altmann on 16 January 2006.

Case

Adele Bloch-Bauer, the subject of two of the paintings, had written in her last will: ''"Meine 2 Porträts und 4 Landschaften von

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's pr ...

, bitte ich meinen Ehegatten nach seinem Tode der österr. Staats-Galerie in Wien zu hinterlassen";'' that is, "I ask my husband to bequeath my 2 portraits and the 4 landscapes by Gustav Klimt to the Austrian State Gallery in Vienna after his death." Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer signed a statement acknowledging Adele's wish in her last will. He also donated one of the paintings to the

Belvedere Gallery Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa *Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco * Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...

in Vienna in 1936. The Austrian Supreme Court determined that Adele was probably never the legal owner of the paintings. Rather, it viewed it as more likely that Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer was their legal owner and that in turn Altmann was the rightful heir of Ferdinand's estate.

Aftermath

Reactions and auction

The ruling in favor of Maria Altmann came as a great shock to the Austrian public and the government. The loss of the paintings was regarded in Austria as a loss of national treasure. She had attempted earlier to come to some mutual agreement in 1999; however, the government repeatedly ignored her proposals. Maria Altmann told the government that the time was up and there would be no deal from her side anymore. The Austrian government declined to accept a condition of the arbitration which would have allowed it preferentially to purchase the paintings at an attested market price. The paintings left Austria in March 2006 and were returned to Altmann. Consequently, the Austrian government received criticism from the opposition parties for its failure to secure a deal with Altmann at an earlier stage. The city of Vienna also asserted that repossessing the paintings was a "moral duty". Just months after the Austrian government finally returned Ms. Altmann's family's heirlooms to her, she consigned the Klimts to the auction house

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

, to be sold on her behalf. ''

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' (also called ''The Lady in Gold'' or ''The Woman in Gold'') is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, , a Jewish banker and sugar ...

'' sold for allegedly $135 million in a private sale, the others in auction, e.g. '' Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II'' for $88 million, with the five paintings fetching a total of over $327 million.

Gallery of the Klimts

File:Gustav Klimt, 1907, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Neue Galerie New York.jpg, ''

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' (also called ''The Lady in Gold'' or ''The Woman in Gold'') is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, , a Jewish banker and sugar ...

'', 1907 File:Gustav Klimt 047.jpg, ''

Adele Bloch-Bauer II ''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II'' is a 1912 painting by Gustav Klimt. The work is a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Bloch-Bauer (1881–1925) was a Vienna socialite, who was a patron and close friend of Klimt. In 1907, Klimt completed an ...

'', 1912 File:Gustav Klimt 006.jpg, ''Buchenwald/
Birkenwald'', 1903 File:Klimt-Apfelbaum I.jpg, ''Apfelbaum I'', 1912 File:Klimt-Unterach am Attersee.jpg, ''Häuser in Unterach am Attersee'', 1916

Documentaries

Maria Altmann's story has been recounted in three documentary films. ''

Stealing Klimt ''Stealing Klimt'' is a 2007 documentary film about Maria Altmann's attempt to recover five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis in 1938, from Austria.http://www.stealingklimt.com ''The Stealing Klimt Story'' from the ''Steal ...

'', which was released in 2007, featured interviews with Altmann and others who were closely involved with the story. ''Adele's Wish'' by filmmaker Terrence Turner, who is the husband of Altmann's great-niece, was released in 2008, and features interviews with Altmann, her lawyer,

E. Randol Schoenberg Eric Randol Schoenberg (born September 12, 1966) is an American lawyer and genealogist, based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in legal cases related to the recovery of looted or stolen artworks, particularly those by the Nazi regime durin ...

, and leading experts from around the world. The piece was also featured in the 2006 documentary '' The Rape of Europa'', which dealt with the massive theft of art in Europe by the Nazi Government during World War II.

Dramatization

Altmann is portrayed by

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom ...

, and Schoenberg by

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...

in the film '' Woman in Gold'', chronicling Altmann's nearly decade-long struggle to recover the Klimt paintings. The film was released on April 3, 2015.

References

Sources

External links

*
''Adele's Wish'' Documentary film on the ''Republic of Austria v. Altmann'' court case

National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism

Holocaust Victims' Information and Support Center

Republic of Austria , Historikerkommission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Republic Of Austria V. Altmann 2004 in United States case law United States Constitution Article Three case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act case law Austria–United States relations Art and cultural repatriation after World War II