Gustav Klimt Portrait Sells for $236.4M at Sotheby’s, Defying Art Market Slump
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
A Gustav Klimt portrait, Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (1914–1916), fetched $236.4 million (≈₩348 billion) at a Sotheby’s New York auction after a fierce 20-minute bidding war, more than doubling the artist’s previous record. The full-length portrait—a rarity among Klimt’s works—comes from his late, symbolist period and emphasizes color, patterns, and the subject’s inner beauty rather than the gold-leaf opulence of his earlier pieces. The painting, once seized by the Nazis in 1938 and later returned to the sitter’s family, had been in the Rausing/Lauder collection for about 40 years before this sale. Two additional Klimt landscapes sold with it, and the combined sales accounted for over $1.17 billion in the auction, signaling strong demand despite a sluggish art market. (Sotheby’s: auction house)
