A portrait of a young woman Gustav Klimt long thought lost was sold at auction in Vienna on Wednesday for $32 million.
The Austrian modernist artist began working on “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser” in 1917, a year before he died, and it is one of his last works. Bidding started at €28 million and the asking price was at the lower end of the expected range of €30 million to €50 million.
The painting was awarded to a Hong Kong bidder, who was not identified.
IN KINSKY
The auction house Im Kinsky stated that “a painting of such rarity, artistic importance and value has not been available on the Central European art market for decades.”
The intensely colored painting was auctioned on behalf of the current owners, Austrian citizens whose names were not revealed, and the legal heirs of Adolf and Henriette Lieser, members of a wealthy Vienna Jewish family who were clients of Klimt, one of whom It is believed that he commissioned the painting. Some experts believe that the lady in the painting could have been one of several women in the family. Still, it is unclear who exactly “Fräulein Lieser” is.
The auction house said the woman in the portrait visited Klimt’s studio nine times to sit for the artist.
Klimt left the painting, with small unfinished parts, in his studio when he died of a stroke in early 1918. It was then given to the family who had commissioned it, according to the auction house.
The Jewish family fled Austria after 1930 and lost most of their possessions.
It is unclear exactly what happened to the painting between 1925 and the 1960s, a period that includes the Nazi dictatorship. Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. One of the only clues is a black and white photograph of the portrait probably taken in 1925 that came with a note reading: “1925 in possession of Mrs. Lieser, IV, Argentinierstrasse 20 “There was no other proof of the painting’s existence until it resurfaced early 2024apparently being secretly owned by a private collector for decades.
The auction house says there is no evidence that the painting was confiscated during the Nazi period, but also no evidence that it was not. It ended up in the hands of the current owners through three successive inheritances.
In light of the uncertainty, an agreement was drawn up with the current owners and the Liesers’ heirs to move forward with the sale under the Washington Principles, which were drafted in 1998 to help resolve issues surrounding the return of art. confiscated by the Nazis.
The auction house said it was very happy with Wednesday’s result.
The sale price was a record at an art auction in Austria. The highest price previously paid at auction in the country was just over €7 million for a work by Frans Francken the Younger in 2010.
—Caitlin O’Kane contributed to this report.