Posted on 11/21/2025 1:58:19 PM PST by simpson96
The final tally of $236.4 million is the highest price for any work of modern art ever sold at auction and also set an auction record for the artist. Until Tuesday evening, that record had been held by Pablo Picasso’s 1955 Les Femmes d’Alger (“Version O”), which sold at Christie’s New York in 2015 for $179.4 million. The Klimt record also marks the most expensive artwork ever sold by Sotheby’s.
“Tonight, we made history at the Breuer,” Helena Newman, Sotheby’s worldwide chairman of Impressionist and modern Art and chairman of its European operations, said in a statement shortly after the lot sold. “To see Gustav Klimt’s exquisite portrait of Elisabeth Lederer set a new auction record for the artist is thrilling in itself; to see it become the most valuable work ever sold at Sotheby’s is nothing short of sensational. Klimt is one of those rare artists whose magic is as powerful as it is universal.”
The full-length portrait, one of only two such named Klimt commissions left in private hands, led the highly anticipated sale of the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, a 55-work trove valued at more than $400 million. Lauder acquired the painting in the mid-1980s from dealer Serge Sabarsky, adding to a collection that also included Cubist masterpieces, which he would later donate to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Lauder trust.
Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer is widely considered one of Klimt’s most intricately conceived late portraits, begun when the artist was at the height of his powers and completed after nearly three years of revisions. Commissioned by the family that served as Klimt’s most important patrons, the work survived confiscation during the Nazi era and was restituted in 1948 before entering Lauder’s collection. Few Klimts ever surface publicly; fewer still carry the weight of this portrait.
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Rhere is a movie called Woman in Gold. Helen Mirren stars in it. A painting by Klimt was stolen by the Nazis .
see Wiki for more info or watch the movie I liked it
that was so sweet of you to post the link... i canjot do that from my tablet.
💗
This is actually one of his better ones. I could never see why his art was so popular.
Even Hunter has better looking art.
It’s not a Hunter Biden? Coulda fooled me.
Hunter Biden had nowhere near the mastery of technique; or any mastery at all.
A lot of Klimt has to be seen in person. The Nazis sure thought it was valuablee.
If I could do it, it ain’t Art.
Her face came out ok, her figure is a mess, her body looks weird.
This is a great site for those who want to see a revival of representational art:
Guy had a little trouble with the hands and fingers, eh? The woman’s look like mine feel today. Wonder if I could get a couple bucks for a photo of my fingers?
I wouldn’t pay 50 cents for it. But ugly.
Pollock’s stuff looks like a thousand paint brushes were thrown at a canvas from a balcony.
Lol.
Sgt. Hartman’s first name was Lawrence.
“Only faggots and sailors ...” He did spend some time talking about reach-arounds.
Things that make you go hmmm
“wouldn’t have paid a single $1 for it at a yard sale!”
i don’t blame you: doesn’t look like it even comes with a frame ...
LOL
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.