Translated with AI
Austrian artist Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" sold at Sotheby's in New York for $236.4 million, Bloomberg reports.
The portrait, painted between 1914 and 1916 and completed two years before the artist's death, became the most expensive work of modern art and the second most expensive painting ever sold at auction. The buyer's name has not been disclosed.
Elisabeth Lederer was the daughter of Austrian businessman August Lederer. During the occupation of Austria, she posed as Klimt's daughter to conceal her Jewish heritage. The portrait was stolen from her family by the Nazis, but it was recovered in 1948, after which it was sold to art dealer Serge Sabarsky in 1983. In 1985, the painting was acquired by Leonard Lauder, son of the founders of the Estée Lauder brand, who remained its owner until his death at the age of 92 in June of this year.
The auction also sold 23 more lots from the Lauder collection, including a Vincent van Gogh drawing and a bronze statuette by Henri Matisse, for a total of $527.5 million.
