A recovered Gustav Klimt painting made history this past Thursday night at Sotheby’s when it became the most expensive piece of modern art to ever be sold at auction.
The Vienna-born artist came to prominence during the early 20th century and is best known for his gold-leaf-laden works “The Kiss,” “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” and “Judith and the Head of Holofernes,” among others.
The lucky recipient of Klimt’s rare painting, titled “Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer” (“Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer“), was an anonymous buyer who managed to snag the painting over the phone, with the assistance of Sotheby’s Vice Chairman and Head of Impressionist and Modern Art Julian Dawes.
The painting, portraying the artist’s young daughter, was completed in 1916.
The previous record — which was set by the Andy Warhol work “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” at a Christie’s auction in 2022 for $195 million and added to the late Estee Lauder heir Leonard A. Lauder’s extensive collection— was shattered when a 20-minute bidding war between six collectors ended in a $236.4 million dollar sale of the work, which was saved from an Austrian castle fire during World War II.
“Our evening sales were a resounding success and send a strong signal for the art market,” Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart told CNBC.
The night went off with a bang when a sculpture by Alexander Calder sold at nearly three times its estimate at $889,000 and was fought over by nine bidders.
Another noted sale of the night included a gold toilet, one of two created by artist Maurizio Cattelan — the man who became famous for taping a banana against a wall — in 2016. On Thursday night, it sold for $12.1 million.
