A painting by Gustav Klimt sells for $236.4 million, making it the second most expensive work of art sold at auction | art

A painting by Gustav Klimt sold for a record $236.4 million (£179.7 million, AU$364 million) including fees, making it the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction and the most expensive modern work of art ever sold at auction.

The six-foot-tall painting, titled “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” was painted by the Austrian painter between 1914 and 1916 and shows Lederer, a young heiress and daughter of Klimt’s patrons, wrapped in a Chinese robe.

Six bidders competed for 20 minutes at a Sotheby’s auction Tuesday evening in New York. Sotheby’s auction house declined to identify the successful buyer of the painting.

The portrait of Elisabeth Lederer was looted by the Nazis and nearly destroyed in a fire during World War II, but in 1948 it was returned to Lederer’s brother Erich, who was a frequent subject of drawings and paintings by Klimt’s friend and fellow artist Egon Schiele. It remained in Eric’s possession for most of his life, until he sold it in 1983, two years before his death.

In 1985, the painting became part of the private art collection of Estée Lauder heir Leonard Lauder, who displayed it at his home on New York’s Fifth Avenue but only for brief periods when it was loaned to exhibitions. Lauder died in June at the age of 92.

Art historian Emily Brown, who served as Lauder’s art advisor for nearly four decades, told CNN that the painting was the jewel of his collection.

“He would eat lunch whenever he was home, and lunch would be at a little round table near the plate,” Brown said.

The painting was one of two complete portraits by Klimt still in private hands.

Before Tuesday, the Klimt painting was expected to sell for more than $150 million (£114 million, AU$230 million). But it beat expectations to represent more than 40% of the total value of Lauder Group, which generated $575.5 million (£437.5 million, AU$885.7 million) with fees.

The sale of “Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer” sets a new record for a Klimt painting at public auction, surpassing the record of $108 million set by the sale of “Lady with a Fan” in 2023.

In 2006, Lauder’s brother, Ronald, paid $135 million in a private sale, not at auction, for Klimt’s famous painting by Adele Bloch-Bauer 1, widely known as “Woman in Gold.”

The most expensive work of art ever sold at auction was Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which sold in 2017 for US$450.3 million in 2017.

After the Lauder Collection auction on Tuesday evening, Sotheby’s embarked on a broader auction of modern art that included a fully functioning toilet made of pure gold, which mocks the super-rich.

The 101kg, 18-carat gold toilet, titled America, was created by Maurizio Cattelan, the provocative Italian artist known for taping a banana to a wall and selling it for $5.2 million. But on Tuesday, his golden toilet received just one bid that met the asking price of $10 million, or $12.1 million with fees.

Cattelan created two solid gold toilets in 2016. The other was displayed in 2016 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which explicitly offered to lend it to US President Donald Trump when he asked to borrow a Van Gogh painting. It was later stolen while on display in England at Blenheim Palace.

Two men were convicted of stealing the toilet, but the toilet was never found. Investigators believe it was likely dismantled and melted down.

Cattelan said his golden toilets mocked the wealthy, and once said: “Whatever you eat, whether it’s a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same regarding the toilet.”