Gustav Klimt painting becomes second most expensive artwork sold at auction

The artwork was returned to Lederer’s brother, Erich, a friend and subject of Klimt’s contemporary, Egon Schiele. The piece remained in Lederer’s possession for most of his life, before he sold it in 1983, according to Sotheby’s.

The painting shows Lederer, an heiress and the daughter of one of Klimt’s patrons, wearing a white robe and standing in front of a blue tapestry covered in Asian motifs.

The Nazis, who annexed Austria in 1938, looted the Lederer art collection but left family portraits behind, says the National Gallery of Canada.

Estée Lauder heir Leonard A Lauder made it part of his private collection in 1985, where it was displayed in his Fifth Avenue home in New York.

Tuesday’s sale shot past expectations, with the painting predicted to sell for $150m before the auction. The second-highest sale for a Klimt on record was Lady with a Fan, which sold for $108.8m in 2023 in London.

Several other Klimt works in Lauder’s collection were auctioned at the same event, including Flowering Meadow and Forest Slope at Unterach am Attersee, which fetched between $60m and $80m each.

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction was Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold in 2017 for $450.3m.

Tuesday also saw a sculpture of a fully functioning gold toilet by the conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan picking up $12.1m just an hour after the record-breaking Klimt sale.

The 101-kg toilet received just one bid. Sotheby’s said that the buyer was a famous American brand.