The Lady in Gold : The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O'Connor traces the history of one of the most famous paintings of the twentieth century.

The book follows Klimt's 1907 portrait of Viennese Jewish socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer through the glittering cultural world of fin-de-siècle Vienna, its theft by the Nazis during World War II, and the decades-long legal battle waged by the Bloch-Bauer heirs to reclaim it from the Austrian government, a fight that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meticulously researched, the book uses the story of a single painting to illuminate broader themes of art, war, restitution, and justice, and inspired the 2015 film Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds.