クリムトの「水蛇ＩＩ」、６０年ぶりに帰郷

【ウィーンＡＦＰ＝時事】オーストリアの巨匠グスタフ・クリムトの大作「水蛇ＩＩ」が、３日からウィーンのベルベデーレ美術館に展示される。同作の国内での展示は約６０年ぶり。（写真はクリムトの「水蛇ＩＩ」）
　ニンフ（妖精）と赤い蛇が描かれた「水蛇ＩＩ」は初め、オーストリアのアートコレクターのシュタイナー一族が購入した。しかし、１９３８年のドイツによるオーストリア併合後、ナチス・ドイツに略奪され、所有者は国外に逃れた。
　ベルベデーレ美術館でのクリムトの展覧会を企画したキュレーター、マルクス・フェリンゲル氏によると、その後、クリムトの「非嫡出子」である映画監督グスタフ・ウィッキイ氏が同作を購入した。
　ウィッキイ氏の死後、その妻が１９６４年に同作を国内で展示したが、その後はほとんど人目に触れることがなかったという。
　だが、ウィッキイ氏の妻は２０１３年、ロシアのオリガルヒ（新興財閥）で、サッカークラブ「ＡＳモナコ」の会長を務めるドミトリー・リボロフレフ氏に１億１２００万ドル（現在のレートで約１４４億円）で売却し、美術界を驚かせた。
　リボロフレフ氏は２年後、現在の所有者である、香港のホームアートに売却した。
　ベルベデーレ美術館は、展覧会で展示するための十万ドル規模の保険料を捻出できなかったため、代わりに専門的な修復作業を申し出た。展覧会は５月２９日まで。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/02/03-23:44）

A major work from the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt has returned to Vienna where it will be shown in its homeland for the first time in nearly 60 years, after museum officials pieced together its tumultuous history.
Water Serpents II, which depicts nymphs grappling with a red serpent, was completed in 1907 during Klimt's so-called golden period, when he embraced the gold-leaf techniques he is known for today.
But unlike many of his other works it has rarely been seen, last exhibited in the Austrian capital in 1964 before falling into obscurity.
The painting was originally purchased by the Steiners, an Austrian art collecting family, and was looted by the Nazis after Germany annexed Austria in 1938 and Jenny Steiner fled the country.
It was later purchased by the Austrian film director Gustav Ucicky, Klimt's illegitimate son, according to Markus Fellinger, curator of the new exhibition at the Belvedere Museum.
Ucicky's widow is said to have exhibited the painting in 1964, and since then it had largely been kept from public view, Fellinger told AFP.
But it re-emerged in 2013 when the widow surprised the art world by agreeing to sell it the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, president of the AS Monaco football club, for $112 million.
Rybolovlev then sold it two years later to its current owner, the HomeArt collection founded in Hong Kong by Rosaline Wong.
The Belvedere, working with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, was able to borrow Water Serpents II as they put together a show on the artists and works that inspired Klimt.
Unable to finance the six-figure sum required to insure the work, the Belvedere offered instead its restoration expertise to include it in the show that opens Friday and runs through May 29.