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Maria Altmann (February 18, 1916 – February 7, 2011) was an Austrian-American Jewish refugee from Nazi Austria, noted for her ultimately successful legal campaign to reclaim from the Government of Austria five family-owned paintings by the artist Gustav Klimt stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Altmann is the central figure in the 2015 film ''Woman in Gold'' where she is depicted by Helen Mirren and Tatiana Maslany. ==Early life== Maria Altmann was born Maria Victoria Bloch on February 18, 1916 in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Marie Therese (Bauer) and Gustav Bloch.〔http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bloch-bauer-adele〕 The family name was changed to Bloch-Bauer the following year.〔See the article on Altmann at the German-language version of Wikipedia.〕 She was a niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy Jewish patron of the arts who served as the model for some of Klimt's best-known paintings, and who hosted a renowned Viennese salon which regularly attracted the most prominent artists of the day, including Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arthur Schnitzler, Johannes Brahms, Franz Werfel, Alma Mahler, Leo Slezak, Otto Wagner, George Minne, Karl Renner, Julius Tandler, and Klimt.〔(''nytimes.com'' ), 2006/06/19.〕〔(''jwa.org'' )〕〔 In 1937, Maria married Fredrick "Fritz" Altmann. Not long after their Paris honeymoon, the 1938 Anschluss incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany. Under the Nazis, Fredrick was arrested in Austria and held hostage at the Dachau concentration camp to force his brother Bernhard Altmann, by then safely in England, to transfer his successful Bernhard Altmann textile factory into German hands. Fredrick was subsequently released and the couple fled for their lives. They made a harrowing escape, leaving behind their home, loved ones, and property, including jewelry that later found its way into the collection of Hermann Göring. Many of their friends and relatives were either killed by the Nazis or committed suicide. Traveling by way of Liverpool, England, they reached the United States and settled first in Fall River, Massachusetts, and finally in the wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood of Cheviot Hills. Shortly after Maria arrived in Los Angeles, Bernhard Altmann mailed her a cashmere sweater – not yet available in the United States – accompanied with the note: "See what you can do with this." Maria took the sweater right to Kerr's Department Store in Beverly Hills, and shortly thereafter attracted a multitude of buyers in both California and across the United States for Bernhard Altmann's cashmere sweaters. Maria became the face of cashmere in California and eventually started her own clothing business with her own clients, among them Caroline Brown Tracy, the mother of actor Spencer Tracy.〔(''amazon.com'' )〕 Altmann became a naturalized American citizen in 1945. Her husband died in 1994. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Maria Altmann」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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