and a nearly destroyed Klimt painting have in common? They christened Sotheby’s first sale out of its new US headquarters in New York on Tuesday evening in a buzzy, record-breaking night.
Early on, the headlining artwork by Gustav Klimt, “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” became the most valuable work of modern art to ever sell at auction, reaching $236.4 million to gasps and applause from the room during the 20-minute bidding war. It was also the most expensive work of art ever sold by Sotheby’s globally. The portrait of Klimt’s patrons’ young daughter, made in the last years of the artist’s life, was spared from destruction during World War II when it was separated from his works that later burned during a fire at Immendorf Castle in Austria.
The lot was “really one of the last opportunities to acquire a (portrait) of this significance by the artist,” noted the auctioneer, Sotheby’s European chairman Oliver Barker, during the sale. In 2023, Klimt’s final completed portrait, “Dame mit Fächer” (Lady with a Fan),” sold for $108.4 million.
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Rare Klimt painting becomes the most expensive work of modern art ever sold at auction
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Jacqui Palumbo
Updated 10 hr ago
This Klimt painting, which hung in the billionaire Leonard A. Lauder's home for decades, is now the most expensive work of modern art to ever sell at auction.
This Klimt painting, which hung in the ...
What does a notorious gold toilet and a nearly destroyed Klimt painting have in common? They christened Sotheby’s first sale out of its new US headquarters in New York on Tuesday evening in a buzzy, record-breaking night.
Early on, the headlining artwork by Gustav Klimt, “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” became the most valuable work of modern art to ever sell at auction, reaching $236.4 million to gasps and applause from the room during the 20-minute bidding war. It was also the most expensive work of art ever sold by Sotheby’s globally. The portrait of Klimt’s patrons’ young daughter, made in the last years of the artist’s life, was spared from destruction during World War II when it was separated from his works that later burned during a fire at Immendorf Castle in Austria.
The lot was “really one of the last opportunities to acquire a (portrait) of this significance by the artist,” noted the auctioneer, Sotheby’s European chairman Oliver Barker, during the sale. In 2023, Klimt’s final completed portrait, “Dame mit Fächer” (Lady with a Fan),” sold for $108.4 million.
The portrait of Lederer, which beat out a previous record set by a Andy Warhol work in 2022, was part of the collection of Estée Lauder heir Leonard A. Lauder, who died earlier this year. Across the sale, most artworks met or exceeded their high estimates, including an Edvard Munch painting at $35.1 million, and a Klimt landscape at $86 million. The tone was set from the first lot, a sculpture by Alexander Calder that attracted nine eager bidders and sold for nearly triple its high estimate at $889,000. So far, Lauder’s collection fetched $527.5 million, well past its estimate of $400 million — with more to be sold during a separate daytime event.
Following the Lauder sale, the contemporary sale was led by a monumental $48.3 million Jean-Michel Basquiat work. Significantly, however, two of the top lots — one by Kerry James Marshall and another by Barkley L. Hendricks — failed to sell, in a surprising divergence from the evening’s momentum. In addition, the auction’s most unusual offering, the 220-pound, 18-karat gold toilet by the conceptual artist and enfant terrible Maurizio Cattelan, only drew a single bid.
One bid for ‘America’
The opulent sculpture, titled “America,” is a sibling to the infamous version, which was exhibited in the Guggenheim as a working toilet and later stolen from Winston Churchill’s birthplace, Blenheim Palace, and never found
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