Overview
- The six-foot Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer became the second-most expensive painting ever sold at auction, behind Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi.
- After nearly 20 minutes of bidding, the work hammered at $205 million and sold for $236.4 million with fees to an anonymous phone bidder with Julian Dawes.
- Sotheby’s confirmed the buyer’s identity will remain undisclosed, and the lot was backed by a guarantee and irrevocable bids.
- As one of only two full-length commissioned Klimt portraits still in private hands, the painting carries rare-market status and a complex Nazi-era restitution history.
- Works from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection brought in about $527.5 million that evening, including two Klimt landscapes, and the portrait set a house record as Sotheby’s most expensive sale.