The tortuous story of Gustav Klimt’s Nazi-looted, 100ft-wide Beethoven Frieze uncovered

The Art Newspaper: DAVID D’ARCY

Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze lines the walls of the basement of the Secession Building, a temple to the emergence of modern art in Vienna. Sophie Lillie’s new book explores the provenance of that work, and should be read by anyone following the contentious field of Nazi-era art restitution.

The 100ft-wide painting was first shown upstairs in the Secession in 1902, as part of a Gesamtkunstwerk devoted to the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Installed around a sculpture of the composer by the German artist Max Klinger, the frieze was Klimt’s vision of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as seen through the eyes of Richard Wagner. …Read More

Pictured: A section from Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze (1902)The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei, distributed by Directmedia via Wikicommons