Quotes of the Day

Images of the gorgeous mosaic and gold-leaf paintings of Vienna's native son Gustav Klimt have long graced everything in Austria from chocolate wrappings to subway walls. The real things, so emblematic of Vienna's embrace of early 20th century Art Nouveau, attract tens of thousands of art lovers to the city each year. So it was with genuine dismay that Austrians woke one morning last week to discover that five of the artist's best-known works housed in the Belvedere Palace — including the famous golden portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the painting's original owner — were suddenly no longer theirs. After a seven-year legal battle, an Austrian arbitration court ruled that the paintings, valued at $150 million, were the property of a California woman who had sued Austria for ownership, and four other heirs.

The paintings had been confiscated by the Nazis in 1938 from Bloch-Bauer's wealthy, art-collecting Jewish family and then handed over to the Austrian government after the war. For years, Maria Altmann, 89, the niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer, has sought to reclaim them. In her will, Bloch-Bauer, who died in 1925, left the pictures to her husband but asked that they eventually be given to the museum. When Altmann first asserted her claim for restitution in 1998, Viennese officials argued that Austria had honored the original owner's intent. But Altmann said that the paintings rightfully still belonged to her family and that when her aunt made her "request," she could not have imagined that they would end up in the hands of a government that participated in the Holocaust. In 1998 Altmann wrote to an advisory board of the government and offered to sell Austria the portrait if they returned other paintings to her. She says she never got a reply.

Klimt lovers want to know if they will still be able to see the paintings. In an interview with Time, Altmann said "I want people to have access and see them," adding that she expects Austria "will do anything and everything to keep" the golden portrait of Adele. She anticipates negotiations will begin in the next few weeks. But Austrians who came to view the paintings for what they feared would be one last time were sadly disappointed. The museum had to lock them away after Altmann's lawyer received an e-mail threatening to destroy the pictures rather than let such national treasures leave their native land. adieu adele!ran one headline. adieu, golden klimt!read another. No matter what Altmann ultimately decides, Vienna is already mourning the loss of a beloved icon.

• ANDREW PURVIS
• A court rules that Klimt paintings looted by the Nazis be returned