Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer IAI

This dazzling portrait shows Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy Viennese socialite who became Gustav Klimt's most famous subject. Painted in 1907 during Klimt's "Golden Phase," the work took three years to complete and used real gold leaf applied directly to the canvas. Adele emerges from an shimmering sea of gold, her pale face and shoulders providing the only contrast to the ornate geometric patterns and symbols surrounding her. The painting exemplifies the Art Nouveau style with its decorative flatness and Byzantine-inspired motifs.

The portrait has a fascinating history beyond the canvas. After the Nazis seized it from the Bloch-Bauer family during World War II, it hung in an Austrian museum for decades. In 2006, following a landmark legal battle, the painting was returned to Adele's niece and later sold for $135 million, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever purchased at the time. Today it's sometimes called "the Austrian Mona Lisa," though its story of restitution and survival makes it remarkable in ways that go far beyond its artistic merit.