Overview
- The Sotheby’s sale achieved $236.4 million including fees for Gustav Klimt’s late portrait from Leonard A. Lauder’s collection, above its roughly $150 million estimate with a price guarantee in place.
- The price sets a new auction record for Klimt and ranks behind only Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” among auction results disclosed publicly.
- Two Klimt landscapes from the same consignment also sold, with “Blühende Wiese” bringing $86 million and “Waldhang in Unterach am Attersee” achieving $68.3 million.
- Sotheby’s did not identify the buyer of the portrait, which is considered one of the last major full-length Klimt portraits remaining in private hands.
- The work’s provenance includes Nazi confiscation of the Lederer family collection in 1938 and postwar restitution to heirs before its long tenure in Lauder’s Fifth Avenue home.