A rare portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt has sold for $236.4 million (£179m) at Sotheby’s in New York, becoming the second most expensive artwork ever auctioned. The Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, painted between 1914 and 1916, triggered a 20-minute bidding war among six buyers. Sotheby’s did not disclose the identity of the winning bidder.
The painting’s history is as dramatic as its price. It was looted by the Nazis, nearly destroyed in a World War Two fire, and later recovered in 1948. Returned to Lederer’s brother, Erich, it remained with the family until it was sold in 1983. The portrait, which shows Lederer in a white robe before a blue tapestry with Asian motifs, later entered the private collection of Estée Lauder heir Leonard A. Lauder in 1985, where it stayed until this week’s sale.
Tuesday’s auction far exceeded expectations, with Sotheby’s originally estimating a price of $150 million. Several other Klimt works from Lauder’s collection also sold for between $60m and $80m. The record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction remains Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which fetched $450.3m in 2017. In a separate headline, a 101-kg functioning gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan sold for $12.1m during the same event.
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