Portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the film Woman in Gold, E. Randol Schoenberg is the indefatigable attorney who waged an eight-year battle on behalf of Maria Altmann in her quest to regain six paintings by Gustav Klimt that had once belonged to her family but were taken by the Nazis. In a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court, Schoenberg won the right for his client to sue the government of Austria for the return of the paintings. Subsequently, as a result of a unanimous decision by an Austrian arbitration court, the six paintings, valued at over $325 million, were returned to Altmann and other family members. The portrait of Altmann’s aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, now occupies a place of honor in the Neue Galerie museum in New York City.

The grandson of renowned Austrian composers, Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl, Schoenberg graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Southern California. In 2007, Mr. Schoenberg received the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award for outstanding achievement in the field of litigation. He is the recipient of awards and honors from many organizations, including The 1939 Society and the American Jewish Congress. He serves as president of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.