Austrian painter Gustav Klimt is best known for his ‘Golden Phase’ – a time when he used gold leaf in many of his paintings. He created his most famous works during this phase, including The Kiss and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. The latter sold for a record price of $135 million dollars in 2006!

In addition to the high demand for his artwork, Klimt has also been in the news for the controversy surrounding paintings stolen by the Nazis in World War II. Hitler, himself a failed artist who was rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, imposed his artistic preferences on the Nazi party, and the nation as a whole. He supported classical portraits, landscapes, and history paintings, and considered modern art to be “degenerate.” 

The Nazi party confiscated this “degenerate” art, including many works by Klimt. Hitler organized a traveling exhibition of this stolen artwork in the summer of 1937, in which the artwork was intentionally displayed to cause mockery. 

Adolf Hitler visits the Degenerate Art exhibition, 1937.

At the end of the exhibition, most of the works were sold in auction in Switzerland.  Thousands of works were burned.  Some of the stolen artwork that still survives has been returned to the rightful owners, but the recovery process is far from over – more than 100,000 pieces have yet to be returned. 

In 2006, the Austrian town of Linz returned five stolen Klimt paintings to their rightful heirs after eight years of legal battle. Among the returned paintings was the record-breaking Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.