Overview
- Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer hammered at $205 million and reached $236.4 million with fees after nearly 20 minutes of bidding.
- The winning offer came from a phone bidder represented by Sotheby’s specialist Julian Dawes, following competition that began at $130 million and was conducted by auctioneer Oliver Barker.
- The price sets auction records for Klimt, for modern art, and for Sotheby’s, and ranks among the highest sums ever achieved for any artwork at auction.
- Offered as the top lot from the 55-work Leonard A. Lauder Collection valued at over $400 million, the proceeds are designated for the Lauder trust with additional lots to follow.
- The portrait’s provenance includes Nazi seizure in 1939 and postwar restitution, and it had long been on loan to the National Gallery of Canada before this sale, which also inaugurated Sotheby’s refurbished Breuer building and featured guarantees and irrevocable bids.