On Life, Art, Money... and a bit on knitting, too

Sorry, guys - it took me such a long time to compile this Finnish text that I just don't have the time or the energy to do it again in English, although most of my sources were English internet pages. In short, it's about the five paintings of Gustav Klimt which were sold in an auction last year and about the origins and ownership of those paintings over the past decades. The auction took place just before my car accident and I had been planning to write about it, but then I got other things to think about.

Here are some links if you want to read the captivating story of those paintings and people and lives surrounding them.

Maria Altmann
Klimt's art I, II
and III
Auction at the Christie's
Top art auction results
of 2006
BBC news

Glancing through my old knitting magazines I came across this pattern, influenced by Klimt. And if you're interested in turning old paintings and sculptures and other pieces of art into knitted garments, you might find this book useful: Knitting Masterpieces, ISBN 0394562666.

It seems that there's some sort of Klimt renaissance going on. If you go and see the movie Ocean's 13, there's one of his paintings in it. And there's a whole movie depicting Klimt's life, starring John Malkovich, but for some reason it hasn't been released in Belgium yet.

And finally, if you want to see what 500 years of art have done to the female face, spend a while watching this video:

500 years