The painting, along with many others, was placed in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna after the War, and the museum battled earnestly, and perhaps with subterfuge to keep it with them. It has been the subject of much kitsch and inspiration for everything from coasters to wall-hangings.

In 1998, the Austrian government announced it would return works of art that had been plundered by the Nazis to their rightful owners. Numerous court battles followed, as documented on the site set up by the law firm. These bland documents conceal the struggle of an octogenarian concentration camp survivor to reclaim her family's heritage, and the historical and artistic richness of the paintings in question.

The Arbitration Court ruled in January 2006 that the Klimt paintings should be restored without charge to the Bloch-Bauer heirs. The paintings, the Birkenwald/Buchenwald (1903), Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912), Apfelbaum (ca. 1912) and Häuser in Unterach am Attersee (ca. 1916), went on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in April.

Christie's helped broker a private sale to Ronald Lauder and the Neue Galerie, a museum dedicated to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art. The price exceeds that for any other painting sold thus far, coming in at about $135 million, although this has not been confirmed to the cent. The LACMA had about the same amount on offer for all five paintings, with the additional promise of keeping them together. The set will now be broken up, and in effect, sold to the highest bidder.

Thus does commerce triumph over art, and Mercury, the Latin god of commerce, merchants and thieves, outwits Jupiter, or Zeus. By Jove!