Most of this intriguing novel is set in Vienna in the glorious 'fin de siecle' early years of the twentieth century and the horrifying late 1930's. The principal characters are Adele Bauer-Bloch and her niece, Maria Bauer Altmann. Adele is forever known to history as the young woman who modeled for Klimt's 'Lady In Gold'. Maria escaped from Austria after the Anschluss, later in life pursued the recovery of her aunt's picture and was portrayed in the 2015 film 'Woman In Gold'. Adele's story is fascinating. She was an early proponent of women's rights and the force behind her husband's famed art collection. Her story is a short course in modern art that had me researching something every few pages. Maria's story covers more familiar ground for any student of Nazi oppression and the run-up to WWII. After the war, Adele's husband, Ferdinand, died in Switzerland after he implored his niece to save the portrait for the family. It was a task that she took up half-a-century later when a young lawyer, Randy Schoenburg, brought to her attention a change in Austrian law. Schoenburg was part of the Austrian Jewish diaspora in California and led the way for the recovery of the painting by Maria when she was eighty-seven. The painting was sold at auction for $135 million to Ronald Lauder who placed in the Neue Museum in NYC.
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