Adele Bloch-Bauer II

The artwork Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912–13) is back in Vienna to undergo scientific analysis and restoration in the Belvedere’s workshops. Until February 2024, this occasion presents a unique opportunity to witness this outstanding privately owned late work by Gustav Klimt in its original form and gain insight into the artist’s painting technique, thanks to current research findings.

As a center of expertise for research into Gustav Klimt’s paintings, the Belvedere continuously conducts scientific analyses that offer exciting new revelations into the structure of the artworks and the creative process behind them.

The name Bloch-Bauer is inescapably linked to the Belvedere. Adele and Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer were lending their paintings to the museum as early as 1919. Decades later, these same paintings found themselves at the center of the world’s most sensational art restitution case. In 2006, following a decision by an arbitration court, Adele Bloch-Bauer II and four other paintings were returned to their legal successors. The painting was auctioned the same year and since then it has remained in private collections.