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. […]
A 1932 masterpiece by Pablo Picasso recently sold for $139 million, making it the second most expensive piece by the artist ever sold. Titled “Femme a la Montre” (Woman with a Watch), it portrays Marie-Therese Walter, Picasso’s French muse and lover, and was previously owned by the late art collector Emily Fisher Landau. Picasso’s relationship […]

