Klimt portrait becomes second most expensive artwork sold at auction
The most expensive painting ever sold at auction remains the Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for US$450 million in 2017.
This image provided by Sotheby's shows Gustav Klimt's Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer), which sold for US$236.4 million at auction on Nov 18, 2025, in New York. (Photo: AP/Sotheby's)
NEW YORK: A portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt fetched US$236.4 million in New York on Tuesday (Nov 18), becoming the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.
Six bidders battled for 20 minutes over the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, which Klimt painted between 1914 and 1916.
The piece depicts the daughter of Klimt's main patron dressed in a white imperial Chinese dress, standing before a blue tapestry with Asian-inspired motifs.
Sotheby's, which managed the sale, did not disclose the identity of the buyer.
The most expensive painting ever sold at auction remains the Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for US$450 million in 2017.
"Full-length society portraits of this impressive scale and from Klimt's pinnacle period (1912-17) are exceptionally rare; the majority in major museum collections," Sotheby's said of Tuesday's sale.
"The painting offered this evening was one of only two such commissioned portraits remaining in private hands," it added in a statement.
Several other works from Klimt were auctioned at the same event, including Flowering Meadow for US$86 million and Forest Slope at Unterach am Attersee for US$68.3 million - both part of the collection of Estee Lauder cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder, who died earlier this year.
In total, 24 lots from the Lauder collection generated US$527.5 million.
For Klimt, the past auction record for his work was held by Lady with a Fan, which sold for £85.3 million (US$108.8 million) in London in 2023.
Another notable auction on Tuesday saw Italian provocateur Maurizio Cattelan's solid gold toilet go for US$12.1 million, and was sold to a famous American brand, according to Sotheby's.
An earlier version of the luxe latrine, titled America, was stolen in 2019 from a castle in England.
Though it was never recovered - and likely was melted down for cash - three men were convicted in connection with the theft.
On Thursday, a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo has a good chance of setting a record for a female artist when it goes on sale, also at Sotheby's in New York.
Estimated at US$40 million to US$60 million, the 1940 piece called The Dream (The Bed) shows the Mexican painter sleeping in a bed overshadowed by a large skeleton.
The most expensive painting by a female artist sold to date is a 1932 work by American Georgia O'Keeffe, which fetched US$44.4 million in 2014.
The record for Frida Kahlo is another self-portrait from 1949, Diego and I, which sold for US$34.4 million in New York.
