In 1939, Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally — the painter’s tender depiction of his mistress, Walburga "Wally" Neuzil — was stolen from Jewish art dealer Lea Bondi as she fled Vienna ahead of the invading Nazis. In 1997, when the painting resurfaced on loan to Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art, Bondi’s heirs asked that the painting be returned to them, launching a thirteen-year legal battle that brought the charged issue of Holocaust property crimes into the public sphere, and eventually forced many art institutions throughout Europe and the US to return works to Jewish families.

As a part of Holocaust Education Week, organized by the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, TIFF is proud to present this special screening of the new documentary Portrait of Wally, a fascinating account of the tangled legal and ethical dispute over Schiele’s famous work. The screening will include an introduction and Q&A session with the film’s producer and screenwriter David D’Arcy, a critic and journalist who has been writing about disputes over art since the 1980s.