RandySchoenberg

In 2006, after 8 years of litigation, the Austrians returned the 5 paintings.

It was 100% a legal battle. 3 Austrian arbitrators ruled in our favor, and directed that they return the paintings under Austrian law.

So the main legal issue in the case had to do with Adele Bloch-Bauer's will, and how to interpret her request that her husband donate the paintings to the Austrian Gallery after his death.

They were stolen (by the Nazis) before he died.

But the way we won the case was that we ended up filing a lawsuit in the United States against the Republic of Austria, and that case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The issue there was whether it was permissible to sue a foreign sovereign.

We relied on the FSIA of 1976. Austria argued that it was impermissibly retroactive to apply that law to a case that arose in the 1930's and 40's. But the Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that we were allowed to proceed.

Hmmm.

There was so much death & devastation in WWII that really the number of lost or missing items is countless. And I think it was understandable that after the war, survivors had larger concerns than tracking down lost possessions and paintings. So many people were killed. The survivors had their lives destroyed, and needed to rebuild them. So 70 years later, valuable paintings are still missing, and this is one of the few areas where we can actually right some of the wrongs from WWII.

I have no doubt that there are many looted paintings in the United States, and Asia, and elsewhere. It's just a matter of trying to find them.

To give you one example, Maria's brother-in-law, Bernard Altmann, had his entire collection confiscated, including four paintings by the Venetian artist Canaletto.

Only one has been located so far.

For me, the most difficult parts were the delays.

At every stage, Austria called and demanded more time, refused to answer, and the hardest thing for me was not being able to sit down and speak to them and resolve it in a timely manner.

The case took 8 years, and in that time, Maria went from age 82 to 90 years.

And for me, that was the most difficult and frustrating part.

It was just endless frustrations, throughout the case!

The Supreme Court scene was very accurate. I was not experienced in arguing in front of the Supreme Court - I'd never done it before - but Maria was approached by other lawyers that wanted to argue the case, but she stuck with me. And I had prepared by doing 3 practice sessions - that are called "moot courts," it's like a practice session where judges or lawyers pretend to be Supreme Court Justices and ask you questions - so I thought I'd heard every possible question.

But then, when it came time for me to speak, and I started my presentation, after the first sentence, I was interrupted by Justice Souter, who asked me a long and convoluted question.

I had absolutely no idea what he was asking.

Unfortunately, this is on tape so you can actually LISTEN to it...

http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2003/2003_03_13

But anyway, I didn't understand the question, and I just had to say - "I'm sorry, but I didn't understand the question."

And all the other Justices smiled, as if to say, We didn't understand it either, thank GOD you asked.

And so it was actually the perfect icebreaker.

It's a real tragedy.

My grandmother, who taught Latin, still complained about the loss of the library in Alexandria under Caesar 2000 years ago. And I'm sure that history will not look kindly on us for allowing it to happen.

What can be done?

Probably only military action can solve the problem. But if WWII has taught us anything, it is that sometimes you really do need to go to war to stop bad things from happening.

You know, I offered to meet with him early on, and we decided that it wasn't a good idea, and I sorta agree with that. Obviously to make a movie out of my story, they had to make a character, right? And it's not exactly me in the movie, they changed some things, and I think Ryan Reynolds needed to find his own way of playing that character. So I think meeting me early on would've confused things. But I know he did watch films, and study some of my mannerisms, things like that. And I finally did get to meet him on the last day of shooting, and I went - the scene in Beverly Hills on top of the rooftop, where he's chasing after Maria, and they finished filming that, and walked over to me, and he pointed over at me, and pointed at himself, and he said 'NAILED IT!' because I was wearing khakis and a blue shirt, and there he was, wearing the same thing I was dressed in!

He has a great sense of humor, he was really funny, and super-nice. He's a very serious actor too, which I really liked, and he worked very hard to make this a believable character, and I think that shows in the success of the film.