The 23-year-old Gustav Klimt Painting Turns Out Behind The Gallery Wall

Portrait of Lady (commons.wikimedia.org)

JAKARTA - The famous painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt known as the "Portrait of Lady" was rediscovered after 23 years of disappearance. The painting, which was lost for decades, was hidden on the gallery wall where it was stolen. Here's the story.

Long before that, as quoted by livescience.com on February 22, 1997, Klimt's painting was reportedly stolen from the modern art gallery Ricci Oddi in Piacenza, Italy. Until now, it is not known who the thief was.

Then a few years later, on December 10 last year, a gardener was cleaning the vines on the walls of the building. When the gardener cleared between the walls, he found a bag.

Unexpectedly, it turned out that the bag contained Klimt's painting, which he lost more than two decades ago. After checking, the painting was found to be in a very intact condition and looked as if it had never been taken outside the gallery building.

"I can tell you that the work is authentic," said one of Piacenza's prosecutors, Ornella Chicca in a press conference some time ago.

Failed to sell because it was too expensive

An expert who has researched Klimt's works, Anne-Marie O'connor tries to reveal how it happened. According to him, the perpetrator who stole the painting "Portrait of a Lady" kept the results behind the gallery wall. It is likely that he was planning to retrieve the painting he had managed to steal and sell it when the news of his theft died down. But unfortunately, in the 1990s, the value of Klimt's work increased so rapidly that thieves felt that they would not be able to sell the artwork to just anyone.

It is only natural that Klimt's works are highly valued. The reason is, he is a painter who is famous for his colorful and patterned paintings of women. As an example, the American public figure, Oprah Winfrey, recently sold one of Klimt's famous paintings "Potrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II" for US $ 150 million.

"Portrait of a Lady" isn't the only piece Klimt has ever stolen. According to O'Connor in his book The Lady in Gold, one of the five works of Klimt that was stolen is "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I". The work was stolen by the Nazis during the Holocaust. These works later fell into the hands of the Austrian government.

Then in 2000 Adele Bloch-Bauer's niece, Maria Altmann filed a lawsuit, demanding that the painting containing her aunt's image be returned. The lawsuit ended before the US Supreme Court. And finally the paintings were returned to Altmann as the most entitled person in 2006.