Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" sold at Sotheby's inaugural auction at the Breuer Building in New York City for $236.4 million, the auctioneer announced Tuesday.
Why it matters: The six-foot-tall painting by the Austrian painter is now both the "most valuable" modern artwork and the second-most expensive piece ever to be sold at auction, per a Sotheby's statement.
The big picture: Six bidders battled it out for some 19 minutes Tuesday, as the bidding price surpassed the $150 million estimate for the portrait that Klimt painted between 1914 and 1916 that depicts Elisabeth Lederer, the daughter of his patrons, in an imperial Chinese dragon robe.
- The painting was looted by the Nazis during the Second World War, but Sotheby's noted in a statement that "the canvas narrowly escaped the fate of other works by Klimt in the Lederers' collection, which were likewise seized but ultimately destroyed in a fire at the war's end."
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Editor's note: This article has been updated with additional details throughout.
