Gustav Klimt portrait sells for $236.4m, becoming second most expensive artwork sold at auction

A portrait by Gustav Klimt has sold for $236.4m (£179.7m, A$364m) at Sotheby’s, making it the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction and the most expensive modern artwork to reach the auction block.

The six-foot painting, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, was completed between 1914 and 1916 and depicts the young heiress in a Chinese robe.

Six bidders competed for the work during a 20-minute session at Sotheby’s in New York. The auction house did not disclose the identity of the winning buyer.

The portrait was seized by the Nazis and narrowly escaped destruction in a wartime fire. It was returned in 1948 to Lederer’s brother Erich, who had longstanding ties to Austrian artists including Egon Schiele. He kept the painting until selling it in 1983.

In 1985 the work entered the private collection of Leonard A Lauder, who displayed it in his Fifth Avenue home. Lauder, who died in June aged 92, lent the piece to galleries only occasionally.

Art historian Emily Braun, who advised Lauder for nearly 40 years, told CNN the portrait was regarded as the highlight of his collection. She said Lauder frequently ate meals beside the artwork.

Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer is one of only two full-length Klimt portraits still in private ownership. Before the auction, estimates suggested a sale price of more than $150m (£114m, A$230m), but the final figure exceeded expectations and represented more than 40% of the total value of Lauder’s collection, which achieved $575.5m (£437.5m, A$885.7m) with fees.

The sale surpasses Klimt’s previous auction record of $108m for Lady with a Fan in 2023. A higher private-sale price of $135m was paid in 2006 by Ronald Lauder for Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1.

Following the Klimt sale, Sotheby’s continued with a modern art auction that included America, a solid gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan, which received a single $10m bid.