Rare Klimt painting sets record as priciest work of modern art

A Gustav Klimt masterpiece, titled “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer”, became the most valuable work of modern art after it was sold with an earth-shattering price tag at Sotheby’s US headquarters.

On Tuesday evening, November 18, a rare Klimt artwork was bought for $236.4 million after a 20-minute bidding war.

The art piece was of Klimt’s patrons’ young daughter, made in the last years of the artist’s life, and remained intact during WWII, when all of his work was burnt during a fire at Immendorf Castle in Austria.

Sotheby’s European chairman Oliver Barker noted during the sale that the lot was “really one of the last opportunities to acquire a (portrait) of this significance by the artist.”

In 2023, Klimt’s final completed portrait, “Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan)”, was sold for $108.4 million.

Moreover, the portrait of Lederer, which beat out a previous record set by a Andy Warhol work in 2022, was part of the collection of Estée Lauder heir Leonard A. Lauder, who died earlier this year.