A portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold for $236.4 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Tuesday, becoming the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.
The record is held by Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," which sold for $450 million in New York in 2017.
Six bidders competed for 20 minutes for the portrait, "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" (1914-1916), which had an estimated price of $150 million. The painting depicts the daughter of Klimt's main patron wearing a white Chinese imperial gown against a blue tapestry with Asian-inspired motifs.
Sotheby's did not disclose the buyer's name.
Like this painting, the large-scale portraits created by the Austrian artist during the most important period of his life (between 1912 and 1917) are "extremely rare," Sotheby's explained in a statement. Most of these works are part of the collections of major museums, while only a few are owned by private collectors.
This record-breaking sale comes at a time when global art auction revenues fell by 33.5% in 2024 to $9.9 billion, their lowest level since 2009, according to Artprice's annual report published in March.
In addition to the difficult economic conditions, the scarcity of high-value artworks is one of the reasons for the decline in revenues.
At another auction on Tuesday in New York, a solid gold toilet seat by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was sold to a "famous American brand" for $12.1 million, Sotheby's reported.
In 2019, an early edition of the work, titled "America," was stolen from a castle in England and never recovered; it is believed to have been melted down for resale. Three men were convicted in the case.
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