Just another pretty face to leave L.A.

Unfortunately the gold-kissed 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt was bought by the cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder for $135 million, the highest sum ever paid for a painting, and will be moved to the Neue Galerie in Manhattan.

Fortunately the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will continue to show the masterpiece, along with four other works that were recently returned by the Austrian government to the family of Maria Altmann of Los Angeles, through June 30, 2006.