{"id":3503,"date":"2025-11-19T13:36:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/menamagazine.com\/?p=3503"},"modified":"2026-01-09T14:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:19:53","slug":"klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/","title":{"rendered":"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A portrait by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (\u00a3179m) in New York on Tuesday, making it the second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six people took part in a 20-minute bidding battle for the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer which was painted between 1914 and 1916.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auction house Sotheby’s has not disclosed the buyer’s identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The portrait was looted by the Nazis and almost destroyed in a fire in World War Two, but was rescued in 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artwork was returned to Lederer’s brother, Erich, a friend and subject of Klimt’s contemporary, Egon Schiele. The piece remained in Lederer’s possession for most of his life, before he sold it in 1983, according to Sotheby’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The painting shows Lederer, an heiress and the daughter of one of Klimt’s patrons, wearing a white robe and standing in front of a blue tapestry covered in Asian motifs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nazis, who annexed Austria in 1938, looted the Lederer art collection but left family portraits behind,says the National Gallery of Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Est\u00e9e Lauder heir Leonard A Lauder made it part of his private collection in 1985, where it was displayed in his Fifth Avenue home in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday’s sale shot past expectations, with the painting predicted to sell for $150m before the auction. The second highest sale for a Klimt on record was Lady with a Fan, which sold for $108.8m in 2023 in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several other Klimt works in Lauder’s collection were auctioned at the same event, including Flowering Meadow and Forest Slope at Unterach am Attersee, which fetched between $60m and $80m each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction was Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold in 2017 for $450.3m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday also saw a sculpture of a fully functioning gold toilet by the conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan picking up $12.1m just an hour after the record-breaking Klimt sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 101-kg toilet received just one bid. Sotheby’s said that the buyer was a famous American brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A portrait by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (\u00a3179m) in New York on Tuesday, making it the second most expensive piece…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,15,450,62,4],"tags":[142,557,558,559],"class_list":["post-3503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-business","category-culture","category-europe","category-international","tag-art","tag-gustav-klimt","tag-painting","tag-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer"],"yoast_head":"\nKlimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction - The MENA News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (\u00a3179m) in New York making it second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction - The MENA News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (\u00a3179m) in New York making it second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The MENA News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-19T13:36:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-09T14:19:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"A S\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"A S\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"A S\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e3e13e2aad1983b09c25a2a8241a07a7\"},\"headline\":\"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-19T13:36:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-09T14:19:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/\"},\"wordCount\":346,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"art\",\"Gustav Klimt\",\"Painting\",\"Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer\"],\"articleSection\":[\"ART\",\"BUSINESS\",\"CULTURE\",\"EUROPE\",\"INTERNATIONAL\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/\",\"name\":\"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction - The MENA News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-19T13:36:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-09T14:19:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e3e13e2aad1983b09c25a2a8241a07a7\"},\"description\":\"Portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (\u00a3179m) in New York making it second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":576},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/\",\"name\":\"The MENA News\",\"description\":\"MIDDLE EAST MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA PREMIUM MAGAZINE STYLE, LATEST NEWS, ENTERTAINMENT, FINANCE, HEALTH, BEAUTY, FASHION, ARTIST,SHOPPING AND MORE\",\"alternateName\":\"The Middle East and North Africa News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e3e13e2aad1983b09c25a2a8241a07a7\",\"name\":\"A S\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/410138d769581137fdcadb0bce7da1b2b149e2a30c291d14d15a614a0b183a94?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/410138d769581137fdcadb0bce7da1b2b149e2a30c291d14d15a614a0b183a94?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"A S\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/themena.com\/author\/as\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction - The MENA News","description":"Portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (\u00a3179m) in New York making it second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction - The MENA News","og_description":"Portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (\u00a3179m) in New York making it second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.","og_url":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/","og_site_name":"The MENA News","article_published_time":"2025-11-19T13:36:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-09T14:19:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"A S","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"A S","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/"},"author":{"name":"A S","@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e3e13e2aad1983b09c25a2a8241a07a7"},"headline":"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction","datePublished":"2025-11-19T13:36:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-09T14:19:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/"},"wordCount":346,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg","keywords":["art","Gustav Klimt","Painting","Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer"],"articleSection":["ART","BUSINESS","CULTURE","EUROPE","INTERNATIONAL"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/","url":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/","name":"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction - The MENA News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-19T13:36:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-09T14:19:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e3e13e2aad1983b09c25a2a8241a07a7"},"description":"Portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (\u00a3179m) in New York making it second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/themena.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gutav-klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer.jpg","width":1024,"height":576},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/klimt-painting-second-most-expensive-artwork-sold-at-auction\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/themena.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Klimt painting second most expensive artwork sold at auction"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/themena.com\/","name":"The MENA News","description":"MIDDLE EAST MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA PREMIUM MAGAZINE STYLE, LATEST NEWS, ENTERTAINMENT, FINANCE, HEALTH, BEAUTY, FASHION, ARTIST,SHOPPING AND MORE","alternateName":"The Middle East and North Africa News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/themena.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e3e13e2aad1983b09c25a2a8241a07a7","name":"A S","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/themena.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/410138d769581137fdcadb0bce7da1b2b149e2a30c291d14d15a614a0b183a94?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/410138d769581137fdcadb0bce7da1b2b149e2a30c291d14d15a614a0b183a94?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"A S"},"url":"https:\/\/themena.com\/author\/as\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3662,"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503\/revisions\/3662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}