How does this artwork elucidate its History?
In 1903, art collector Carl Reininghaus acquired the Klimt's Beethoven Frieze to prevent its destruction after the 14th Vienna Secession. In appreciation for preserving his work, Klimt provided Reininghaus with over 100 preparatory sketches, one of which was sold to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1964. Industrialist August Lederer was pressured by his wife, Serena, to acquire the frieze and many of these sketches in 1915.During the 1938 German annexation of Austria, the widowed Serena Lederer was forced to abandon her art collection as she fled to Switzerland to avoid Nazi persecution for her Jewish faith. After the painting was recovered by Allied forces from the Altaussee salt mine in Austria in 1945, it was returned to Serena's son, Erich Lederer. In 1973, Erich was forced to sell the frieze for $750,000 (half of its market value) to the Austrian government in exchange for Chancellor Bruno Kreisky granting export licenses for the Lederer family's other Klint pieces.Over ten years, Manfred Koller of the Austrian Federal Monuments Office restored the piece. After the Secession Building built a climate-controlled basement room in 1985, the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere permanently loaned the piece, publicly displaying the piece since 1986. In 2020, museum visitors were provided with headphones to hear Beethoven's Ninth Symphony while viewing the frieze in celebration of the composer's 250th birthday.In 2013, members of the Lederer family filed a claim for the Beethoven Frieze to be returned. However, the Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board rejected this request in 2015, finding that Erich Lederer had voluntarily negotiated the sale price and that the Austrian government had significantly invested in its restoration at the Secession Building.
Federal Monuments Office frieze Serena Lederer Jewish Secession Building Frieze German annexation of Austria Nazi Österreichische Galerie Belvedere Allied forces Altaussee salt mine Bruno Kreisky Vienna market value Switzerland Serena Beethoven's Vienna Secession Chancellor Museum of Fine Arts, Boston August Lederer