A portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4 million in New York on Tuesday, making it the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. The piece, titled “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” was created between 1914 and 1916 and attracted six bidders during a 20-minute auction.
Sotheby’s, the auction house managing the sale, has not revealed the identity of the buyer. The portrait has a complex history; it was looted by the Nazis and nearly destroyed in a fire during World War Two but was rescued in 1948. The artwork was subsequently returned to Elisabeth Lederer’s brother, Erich, who was also a friend and subject of another contemporary artist, Egon Schiele. It remained in the Lederer family until it was sold in 1983.
The painting depicts Lederer, an heiress and the daughter of one of Klimt’s patrons, dressed in a white robe in front of a blue tapestry adorned with Asian motifs. During the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, the Lederer art collection was looted, although family portraits were not taken, according to the National Gallery of Canada.
In 1985, the portrait became part of the private collection of Leonard A. Lauder, an heir to the Estée Lauder company, where it was displayed in his home on Fifth Avenue in New York. The sale surpassed expectations, as the portrait was initially predicted to fetch around $150 million. The previous record for a Klimt painting was set earlier in 2023, when “Lady with a Fan” sold for $108.8 million.
Alongside the Klimt sale, several other works from Lauder’s collection, including “Flowering Meadow” and “Forest Slope at Unterach am Attersee,” garnered between $60 million and $80 million each. The most expensive artwork sold at auction remains Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” sold for $450.3 million in 2017.
Additionally, a fully functioning gold toilet sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan sold for $12.1 million shortly after the Klimt auction, receiving just one bid. Sotheby’s indicated that the buyer was associated with a famous American brand.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2emm4737zo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss