Gustav Klimt painting becomes second most expensive work of art at auction

A portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold for $236.4m (£179m) in New York on Tuesday, becoming the second most expensive work in auction history.

Six people took part in a 20-minute bidding war for “Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer,” which was painted between 1914 and 1916.

Auction house Sotheby’s has not revealed the identity of the buyer.

The portrait was looted by the Nazis during World War II and nearly destroyed in a fire, but was salvaged in 1948.

The artwork was returned to Lederer’s brother Erich, a friend and subject of Klimt’s contemporary Egon Schiele. The piece remained in Lederer’s possession for most of his life until he sold it in 1983, according to Sotheby’s.

The painting depicts Lederer, an heiress and the daughter of one of Klimt’s patrons, wearing a white robe and standing in front of a blue tapestry covered with Asian patterns.

The Nazis who annexed Austria in 1938 looted Lederer’s art collection but left behind family portraits, National Gallery of Canada says.

Estee Lauder heir Leonard A Lauder added it to his private collection in 1985 and displayed it at his home on Fifth Avenue in New York.

Tuesday’s auction exceeded expectations, with the painting expected to sell for $150 million. The second highest auction record for a Klimt work is “Lady with a Fan,” which sold for $108.8 million in London in 2023.

Several other Klimt works from Lauder’s collection were sold at the same auction, including Attersee Unterach’s “Flower Meadow” and “Forest Slope,” which each sold for between $60 million and $80 million.

The most expensive work of art sold at auction was Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” which sold for $450.3 million in 2017.

A fully functional gold toilet sculpture by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan sold for $12.1 million on Tuesday, an hour after Klimt’s record-breaking auction.

Only one bid was received for the 101kg toilet. Sotheby’s said the buyer was a well-known American brand.