Portrait of Wally
(eVideo)

eVideo

und

Title from title frames.

In Process Record.

Originally produced by Seventh Art Releasing in 2012.

"Portrait of Wally", Egon Schiele's tender picture of his mistress, Walburga ("Wally") Neuzil, is the pride of the Leopold Museum in Vienna. But for 13 years the painting was locked up in New York, caught in a legal battle between the Austrian museum and the Jewish family from whom the Nazis seized the painting in 1939. PORTRAIT OF WALLY traces the history of this iconic image - from Schiele's gesture of affection toward his young lover, to the theft of the painting from Lea Bondi, a Jewish art dealer fleeing Vienna for her life, to the post-war confusion and subterfuge that evoke THE THIRD MAN, to the surprise resurfacing of "Wally" on loan to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan in 1997. The "Wally" case brought the story of Nazi art loot into the open, eventually forcing museums in Europe and the U.S. to search their own collections for suspect objects. Many museums ended up returning art to Jewish families who had abandoned hope until "Wally" showed that institutions could be held accountable for holding property stolen during the Holocaust. The case was resolved in dramatic fashion in the summer of 2010, but only after the history of Schiele's extraordinary painting was unearthed to revisit the crimes of the Holocaust and to witness the reluctance of major institutions in Europe and New York to send the "last prisoners of war" back to their families. Accolades *World Premiere Tribeca Film Festival *Official Selection SilverDocs Documentary Festival *Official Selection Toronto Jewish Film Festival *Official Selection DocAviv "As detailed in Andrew Shea's fascinating documentary "Portrait of Wally,"Egon Schiele 's haunting 1912 painting of his mistress and favorite model Wally Neuzil had a complicated, extremely dramatic history as well as a legal and cultural significance that can't be overestimated... By showing how difficult and problematic righting a wrong can turn out to be, "Portrait of Wally" does itself proud." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times "Works like a suspense drama! A painting's provenance matters, and so does this portrait of 'Portrait of Wally.'" - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune "[A] bombshell! 'Portrait of Wally' isn't just about stolen art: It's about cultural skulduggery, political sleaze, institutional hypocrisy and the virtues of persistence." - John Anderson in Variety "A cinematic masterwork about a painted masterpiece." - E. Nina Rothe, Huffington Post "An ace legal thriller, spinning a web of shame that snags everything from the Austrian government to America's most beloved not-for-profits." - Eric Hynes in Time Out New York "A surprisingly engaging account of a landmark case that shook up the art world." - indieWire "Portrait Of Wally tells a gripping story." - Onion's AV Club "A serpentine thriller" - Graham Fuller in ARTINFO "An energetic retelling of a tale well worth hearing!" - George Robinson in Jewish Week "Portrait of Wally, a testament to art's baffling ability to somehow encapsulate everything and nothing of life at once, deserves to be one of the docs that breaks into the American pop consciousness this year." - Chuck Bowen in Slant Magazine

Mode of access: World Wide Web.