A portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt became the second-most expensive artwork sold at auction and the most expensive modern artwork, selling for US$236.4 million on Tuesday, reports The New York Times.
Six bidders battled for 20 minutes over Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, a striking full-length depiction of the young heiress painted between 1914 and 1916. The painting far exceeded Sotheby’s US$150 million estimate. The New York-based auction house declined to identify the buyer.
“To see Gustav Klimt’s exquisite portrait of Elisabeth Lederer set a new auction record for the artist is thrilling in itself; to see it become the most valuable work ever sold at Sotheby’s is nothing short of sensational,” Helena Newman, worldwide chairman of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s, said in a statement. “Klimt is one of those rare artists whose magic is as powerful as it is universal.”
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Elisabeth Lederer was the daughter of Jewish industrialist August Lederer, one of Klimt’s most prominent patrons. The portrait captures the rosy-cheeked 20-year-old, her short dark hair contrasting with a gauzy white dress and elaborate imperial Chinese dragon robe, standing against a pale blue tapestry covered in Asian motifs.
The Nazis looted the Lederer art collection during Austria’s annexation in 1938; the portrait wasn’t returned to the family until 1948. Following Elisabeth’s death from illness in 1944, the portrait went to her brother Erich. Cosmetics heir Leonard A Lauder acquired the painting in 1985, and it hung in his Fifth Avenue apartment until his death in June.Sotheby’s agreed to guarantee Lauder’s estate a minimum for all 55 works from the collection. Two Klimt landscapes — Flowering Meadow and Forest Slope at Unterach am Attersee — sold for US$86 million and US$68.3 million respectively, alongside works by Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh. Proceeds go to the Lauder trust.
