Overview
- The 1914–16 portrait sold after nearly 20 minutes of bidding, hammering at $205 million and closing at $236.4 million with fees to a phone bidder working with Sotheby’s Julian Dawes.
- Sotheby’s identified the price as its highest ever and the second most expensive artwork sold at auction, with the buyer’s identity undisclosed.
- The work led a 24-lot Lauder sale that realized about $527.5 million, with Klimt works across the evening approaching $400 million in total.
- Painted for Klimt’s key patrons, the Lederer family, the portrait was seized by the Nazis, restituted in 1948, and entered Leonard A. Lauder’s collection in the 1980s after passing through the dealer market.
- One of only two full-length commissioned Klimt portraits remaining in private hands, the lot was backed by a guarantee and irrevocable bids, and proceeds are reported to benefit the Lauder trust.