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 thirteen years the painting was locked up in New York, caught in a legal battle between the museum and the Jewish family from whom the Nazis seized the painting in 1939. The documentary 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; to the post-war confusion and subterfuge and then the surprising resurfacing of Wally on loan to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan in 1997.

USA and Austria, 2012, 90 minutes. Director: Andrew Shea.

COST:
Student | $4
Member | $6
General Admission | $8