Posted on 06/27/2023 2:16:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Gustav Klimt’s ‘Dame mit Fächer’ (‘Lady with a Fan’) has sold for a record-breaking £85.3m ($108.m, €99.2m) at Sotheby’s. The sale marked the highest price ever paid for an artwork at a European auction.
Making its first appearance on the market in 29 years, the piece exceeded pre-sale expectations of £65m. The final bid was placed by Patti Wong, founder of Patti Wong & Associates, who was representing a Hong Kong collector.
The previous record for an artwork sold in Europe was £65m for Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture ‘L’homme qui marche I’ (‘The Walking Man I’), sold at Sotheby’s London in 2010.
Helena Newman, Chair of Sotheby’s Europe and Worldwide Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, commented on the piece’s significance: “’Dame mit Fächer’ is the last portrait Gustav Klimt created before his untimely death. This is a technical tour de force, full of boundary-pushing experimentation and a heartfelt ode to absolute beauty.” Another treasured artwork by Klimt that remains unfinished is ‘The Bride’.
‘Lady with a Fan’, featuring an unnamed woman, was left unfinished in Klimt’s studio at the time of his death in 1918. Its use of Chinese motifs and patterns reminiscent of Japanese woodblock prints reflects Klimt’s diverse artistic influences.
The sale broke the previous auction record for a Klimt work, $104.6m for ‘Birch Forest,’ sold last year in New York. ‘Dame mit Fächer’ was last sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 1994 for $11.6m, a record at the time.
Looks like a Matisse, but with figures drawn with greater skill. She has the swan neck of a Modigliani Dame.
Wow - big bucks. Things that make you say “Damn!”.
BTW, here’s my favorite - Tod und Leben (Death and Life):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_Life
That was fast.
Do you know how many Strats and Les Paul’s you could buy with that? 😂👍
Quote: “amateur”, Hunter Biden.
There are two ways to measure the worth of a work of art. The first is to measure its perfection of craft, depth of message, and ability to continue to speak over time, whether seconds or centuries. The other is to discern how much the next owner is willing to pay for it.
This is a painting that has craft, message, and inexhaustibility. Whether it has $108,000,000 worth of these is something only the Hong Kong collector thinks s/he knows for sure, and even the collector can’t really be sure.
Nice art posts! Thanks...
YW
I like Klimt, but that doesn’t even come close to his best work.
Imagine how much they could’ve gotten for it if the guy knew how to draw necks!
And Tellies, too!
The Paintings of Gustav Klimt - Bach on Sax
https://youtu.be/4eqC8kSIrPI
People with more money than brains, some of whom might qualify as such with 77¢ in their pockets.
But, as a small-l libertarian... go for it, idiots. Hang it someplace nice and obvious, so people like me can learn what we need to know without talking to you for very long.
On reflection, could be an investor who will put it in a vault in the hope of its "value" increasing over time, and we'll be treated to another news story about somebody else paying more for it...
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