sothebys lauder now contemporary sales report klimt record 1234762267

Sotheby's held a marathon double sale at its new Breuer Building location, selling Gustav Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer for $236.4 million—the second highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction. The evening featured works from the collection of the late cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder, totaling $527.5 million, far exceeding its low estimate. The subsequent "Contemporary and the Now" sale brought in $178.5 million, with a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting selling for $48.3 million. Overall, the night generated $706 million, with multiple auction records set for artists including Cecily Brown, Antonio Obá, Yu Nishimura, Jess, and Noah Davis.

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Kenny Schachter's column reports on the fallout at Michael Werner Gallery following the departure of star artist Peter Doig. Co-owner Gordon VeneKlasen is accused of expensing luxury items—including private jets, Hamptons helicopter rides, and even a solo helicopter trip for his Labrador Retriever—while the gallery faced financial strain. The partnership is dissolving, with VeneKlasen moving to Los Angeles to open his own gallery and listing his West Village home for $20 million. Meanwhile, Schachter also notes Pace Gallery's financial troubles, with founder Arne Glimcher stepping in to stabilize operations.

Paint Drippings: Art Industry News November 21

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The Philadelphia Museum of Art has appointed Daniel H. Weiss, former head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as its new director and CEO to provide stability following the controversial dismissal of Sasha Suda. The transition occurs amid a legal battle, with the museum filing court documents alleging Suda misappropriated funds and falsified records. Meanwhile, the auction market saw a historic moment at Sotheby’s, where Gustav Klimt’s 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' sold for $236.4 million, setting a new record for the artist and becoming the most expensive Modern work ever sold at auction.

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The article reports that the top tier of the art auction market rebounded strongly in 2025, with the ten most expensive lots totaling $757.1 million, a 48% increase from 2024. Gustav Klimt became the top-selling artist, driven by the sale of his *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914–16) from the collection of the late Leonard Lauder, which was the most expensive artwork of the year. The rankings saw significant shifts: René Magritte, the top artist in 2024, fell to sixth place, while blue-chip names like Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat strengthened their positions. Notably, no women or living artists appeared among the top 20 sellers in 2025, a reversal from the previous year when Yayoi Kusama and Joan Mitchell were present.

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The ARTnews industry moves column for November 19, 2025 reports several gallery and institutional changes: Ortuzar partners with the Claire Falkenstein Foundation for a multi-year initiative including a booth at Art Basel Miami Beach and a 2026 exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art; Jessica Silverman now co-represents GaHee Park with Perrotin; Gurr Johns appoints Robert Goff as president of private sales and Tabor Story as director of private sales; Tara Downs adds Diné/Tlingit artist Nizhonniya Austin to its roster; Kohler Arts/Industry announces its 2026 residency cohort of 12 artists; Upsilon Gallery names Camilla Previ managing director in Milan. The column also highlights the record-breaking $236.4 million sale of Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' at Sotheby's, the highest price for any modern artwork at auction.

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Marian Goodman Gallery has taken on representation of artist Edith Dekyndt, whose multidisciplinary practice spans video, sculpture, installation, and performance, with plans to debut her work at Art Basel Paris in October. In other industry moves, Salon 94 now represents Raven Halfmoon, Timothy Taylor Gallery represents Martha Tuttle, Templon adds Martial Raysse, Acquavella Galleries represents Harumi Klossowska de Rola, and Gagosian has hired Aaron Baldinger as a director. Additionally, Jennie Goldstein has been named the inaugural Kippy Stroud Curator at the Whitney Museum, and Sotheby's will sell a tranche of artworks from the collection of the late Leonard Lauder, including Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, estimated at over $150 million.

sothebys charles stewart supply and demand 1234761813

Sotheby's CEO Charles Stewart told CNBC that the art market has entered a new phase this fall, with supply finally catching up with demand after months of strong bidder activity. New York's marquee auction houses are preparing for sales expected to total more than $1.4 billion, a roughly 50% jump from last year, driven by major consignments including the estate of Leonard Lauder (55 works valued at over $400 million, led by Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) and collections from Jay and Cindy Pritzker. Christie's highlights include a Monet Nymphéas, a David Hockney portrait, and a Mark Rothko, each estimated at $40–60 million.

new york auction measures 2719737

New York's spring auction season concluded with a dramatic five-day marathon across Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips, generating a combined $2.2 billion. Sotheby's led with $1.17 billion in total sales, fueled by Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914–16) from the estate of Leonard A. Lauder, which sold for $234.6 million—a single work accounting for 20% of Sotheby's total. Christie's followed with $962.6 million, and Phillips added $92.1 million. Notable highlights included Frida Kahlo's *El sueño (La cama)* (1940) achieving $54.7 million, a new record for the artist and the highest price for a female artist at auction in raw dollars, and a triceratops fossil named Cera selling for $5.4 million at Phillips.

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Sotheby's held a marathon evening sale in New York on Tuesday night, achieving $706 million in total sales—the highest single-evening total in the auction house's history. The standout was the collection of Leonard A. Lauder, which alone brought $527.5 million, led by Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914-16) that sold for $236.4 million after a 20-minute bidding war. A second sale of contemporary and ultra-contemporary works added $178.5 million, with Jean-Michel Basquiat's *Crowns (Peso Neto)* (1981) topping that session at $48.3 million. Notably, no lots were withdrawn across both sales, and Asian collectors drove bidding on many high-value lots. Maurizio Cattelan's gold toilet *America* (2016) sold for $12.1 million, drawing only one bid.

records fall during 706 million night at sothebys turbocharged by blue chip lauder trove 2714943

Sotheby's achieved a record-breaking $706 million auction night at its new global headquarters in the Breuer Building, New York, the highest total in the auction house's 281-year history. The sale was propelled by the collection of late art patron Leonard A. Lauder, whose 24 pieces sold for $527.5 million, led by Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914–16) which fetched $236.4 million, becoming the second-priciest artwork ever sold at auction. A subsequent contemporary and ultra-contemporary art sale added $178.5 million.

sothebys robert mnuchin collection rothko 1234776056

Sotheby’s has secured the personal collection of the late financier and legendary art dealer Robert Mnuchin for its marquee May auctions in New York. The 24-work consignment is headlined by Mark Rothko’s 1957 masterpiece 'Brown and Blacks in Reds', which carries an estimate of $70 million to $100 million. The collection also features significant works by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Jeff Koons, reflecting Mnuchin's lifelong dedication to postwar abstraction and the New York School.

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Sotheby's is offering Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" (1914-1916) from the estate of the late collector and philanthropist Leonard Lauder with an asking price exceeding $150 million. The consignment also includes two Attersee landscapes valued at over $70 million and $80 million respectively, potentially generating over $300 million from just three lots. This sale follows Ronald Lauder's record-setting $135 million private purchase of Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" in 2006, and is guaranteed to set a new auction record for the artist, surpassing the current $108.8 million benchmark.

British billionaire's £200m art collection most expensive ever offered in UK

British billionaire Joe Lewis will sell a tranche of his art collection in a standalone sale at Sotheby’s in London this June, estimated at £150m–£200m. This makes it the most valuable single-owner collection ever offered in the UK, surpassing the Pauline Karpidas collection which totalled £101m. Highlights include Gustav Klimt’s *Bildnis Gertrud Loew* (est £20m–£30m), Amedeo Modigliani’s *Homme à la pipe* (est £12m–£18m), and Francis Bacon’s *Two Studies for Self-Portrait* (est £8m–£12m). The sale follows a smaller March auction of four works from the Lewis collection that focused on School of London artists.

auctioneers jewelry evening sales 1234763909

Sotheby's held its inaugural evening sale at the Breuer building, featuring the Contemporary and the Now sale. Auctioneer Oliver Barker achieved $527.5 million in sales, surpassing the pre-sale low estimate of $379 million. The highlight was Gustav Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, which sold for $236.4 million, setting an auction record for Klimt and becoming the second most expensive work ever sold at auction. During the sale, auctioneer Phyllis Kao wore a David Webb necklace from the mid-1980s, featuring carved emeralds, rubies, and cabochon sapphires, which was on view and available for private sale at Sotheby's retail salon in the Breuer lobby.

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Sotheby's is projecting $7.0 billion in consolidated 2025 sales, a 17% increase over the previous year and the strongest result in the company's history. Auction sales rose 26% to $5.7 billion, driven by high-quality consignments including the Leonard A. Lauder Collection and a $236.4 million Klimt painting. Luxury sales climbed 22% to $2.7 billion, while RM Sotheby's surpassed $1 billion for the first time. The opening of Sotheby's new global headquarters at the Breuer Building was a commercial centerpiece, generating $1.17 billion in its inaugural week. The company also expanded rapidly in the Middle East, staging the first international auction in Saudi Arabia and launching Collectors' Week in Abu Dhabi.

gustav klimt portrait of elisabeth lederer auction record 1234762083

Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' (1914–16) sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby's New York on November 18, 2025, after 20 minutes of bidding. The painting, which started at $130 million, was won by a phone bidder represented by Sotheby's specialist Julian Dawes, with the hammer price at $205 million. The work was the highlight of the Leonard A. Lauder Collection sale, a 55-work trove valued at over $400 million, and proceeds will go to the Lauder trust. The portrait had been restituted after Nazi-era confiscation and was acquired by Lauder in the mid-1980s.

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Sotheby's has secured a major consignment of approximately $400 million in art from the collection of the late Leonard Lauder, who died in July at age 92. The highlight is Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" (1914–16), expected to fetch over $150 million, potentially shattering Klimt's auction record. The sale also includes two other Klimt landscapes, six bronzes by Henri Matisse, a $20 million Edvard Munch painting, and an Agnes Martin work, totaling 55 artworks. The auction will inaugurate Sotheby's new space in the former Whitney Museum building, designed by Marcel Breuer.

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Artnet News columnist reflects on the fragile state of the art market as 2025 ends, noting that global instability and troubling news have dampened buyer psychology. Despite this, major auction houses reported strong annual sales—Sotheby's at $7 billion (up 17%) and Christie's at $6.2 billion (up 6%)—and a series of high-profile sales, including the Pauline Karpidas collection auction and Leonard Lauder's Gustav Klimt portrait fetching $236.4 million, have sparked renewed momentum. The article quotes advisors and dealers who sense a market bottom has passed, with buyers returning to auctions and fairs like Art Basel Miami Beach.

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Artnet News published a roundup of 10 art historical deep dives from 2025, curated by an editor who expresses a deep passion for art history. The article highlights several featured stories, including the eccentric tale behind Carl Kahler's monumental cat painting "My Wife's Lovers" (1891), commissioned by Gilded Age patron Kate Birdsall Johnson; the record-breaking sale of Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" for $236.4 million at Sotheby's New York, with its rich symbolism and Imperial Chinese motifs; the online resurgence of August Friedrich Schenck's obscure 19th-century painting "Anguish" (ca. 1878), popularized by TikTok; and the centenary of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" with a deep dive into Francis Cugat's iconic cover art "Celestial Eyes" (1924).

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New York's marquee auction week delivered strong results, with Sotheby's and Christie's posting combined sales of nearly $2 billion. Sotheby's achieved a record $706 million evening at its new Breuer Building headquarters, driven by the Leonard Lauder estate sale, while Christie's $690 million 20th-century sale was up 41.9% from last November. Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* sold for $236.4 million, setting a new auction record for the artist and becoming the most expensive Modern artwork ever sold at auction. Frida Kahlo's *El Sueño (La Cama)* fetched $54.7 million, a record for a work by a woman artist at auction.

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Phillips’s Modern and Contemporary art evening sale in New York on Wednesday achieved $67.3 million, a 24.4% increase over last year’s total but far below the $154.6 million record set in 2023. The 33-lot sale landed at the top end of its pre-sale estimate, with Francis Bacon’s *Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer* (1967) selling for $16 million as the top lot. Notably, the auction included dinosaur bones for the first time—a juvenile triceratops skeleton nicknamed Cera—which proved a lucrative draw, while a painting by rising British artist Jadé Fadojutimi and a gold nugget called “The Thunderbolt” both failed to sell. Only one new artist record was set, for Firelei Báez at $645,000.

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A Gustav Klimt painting, *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914), sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York, setting a new auction record for the artist and becoming the most expensive work ever sold at Sotheby’s as well as the most expensive Modern artwork at auction. The work was part of a sale dedicated to the collection of the late art patron Leonard Lauder, who died in June at age 92. The bidding lasted about 20 minutes, with Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker opening at $130 million; the winning bid of $205 million came from Sotheby’s staffer Julian Dawes, representing a phone client. The sale included two dozen works from Lauder’s trove, which also featured three Klimt paintings and six Henri Matisse bronzes.

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Artnet News critic Ben Davis presents his annual "art words of the year" for 2025, a curated list of terms that capture prevailing moods and ideas in the art world. The list includes "antimemetics" (from writer Nadia Asparhouva and internet fiction), "cyniserity" (coined by art writer David Colman to describe Anne Imhoff's work), "delightmare" (a horror-adjacent feeling linked to overconsumption and AI art, exemplified by Beeple's Art Basel installation), "elite capture" (from philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò's book, now a tool for critiquing identity politics in art), and "K-shaped" (an economic term describing divergent recovery, applied to gallery closures versus record auction sales).

The Art Market Year in Review

The art market experienced a turbulent 2025, beginning with a 12% decline in sales from 2024, following a 3% drop in 2023, as reported by the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. Major auction houses Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips saw average sales fall 6% in the first half of the year. However, the market rebounded by autumn, with strong sales at London and Paris art fairs and a 15% year-on-year increase in auction sales at the three main houses by December, according to Pi-eX. Key events included Sotheby’s failed sale of Alberto Giacometti’s *Grand tête mince* in May, followed by a record-breaking $236 million sale of Gustav Klimt’s *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* in November, and a $31.4 million record for François-Xavier Lalanne’s *Hippopotame Bar*.

16 New Auction Records Set in November 2025

New York's fall auction week in November 2025 saw major houses Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips collectively bring in over $2 billion, signaling renewed market confidence after an uneven spring. The top lot was Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer* (ca. 1914–16), which sold for $236.36 million at Sotheby's—the second-highest price ever paid at auction and a new record for the artist. Other notable records included Frida Kahlo's *El sueño (La cama)* (1940), which became the most expensive artwork by a woman artist sold at auction, fetching $54.66 million. In total, 16 new artist auction records were set during the week.

art auction new york record breaking

Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914-16) sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby's on November 18, becoming the second-most expensive painting ever sold at auction and the most expensive work ever sold by the house. The sale was part of New York's marquee November auctions, which generated over $2 billion in a single week—more than 50 percent above last year's total—driven by high-profile estates including that of cosmetics heir Leonard A. Lauder. Other notable sales included Mark Rothko's *No. 31 (Yellow Stripe)* for $62.2 million at Christie's, Marc Chagall's *Le songe du Roi David* for $26.5 million, and Frida Kahlo's *El sueño (La cama)* for $55 million, setting a new record for the artist and the highest sum for a work by a female artist at auction. Phillips also sold a juvenile Triceratops skeleton named CERA for $5.4 million.

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Christie's and Sotheby's November marquee auctions in New York generated a combined $1.4 billion, with Sotheby's achieving a record $706 million from a double-header sale. The highlight was Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" (1914–16), sold for $236.4 million from the collection of late cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder, becoming the most expensive modern artwork ever sold at auction. Christie's Monday sale brought in $690 million, falling short of its $731.5 million high estimate but still marking a 42% increase over its equivalent sale last November.

In major auction night, rare Klimt painting smashes records at $236.4 million

Sotheby's held its first sale at its new US headquarters in New York, where Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" sold for $236.4 million, becoming the most valuable work of modern art ever sold at auction and the most expensive artwork ever sold by Sotheby's globally. The record-breaking 20-minute bidding war also saw strong results for works by Edvard Munch ($35.1 million) and a Klimt landscape ($86 million), while the evening's total reached $706 million. However, two top lots by Kerry James Marshall and Barkley L. Hendricks failed to sell, and Maurizio Cattelan's gold toilet "America" drew only a single bid from Ripley's Believe It or Not! for $12.1 million.

Heists, Records, and Robots. A Subjective Summary of the Art World in 2025.

The article reviews the art world in 2025, highlighting a mixed year of declining sales values and cautious buyers, yet punctuated by record-breaking auctions and dramatic events. Fine art auction sales in the first half of 2025 totaled $4.7 billion, an 8.8% drop from 2024, with the average lot price falling to a decade-low of $24,224, indicating a shift toward lower-value works and younger collectors. Major sales included Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, which sold for $236 million at Sotheby's, becoming the second most expensive artwork ever auctioned, and Frida Kahlo's El sueño, which set a new auction record for a female artist at $55 million. The market was also unsettled by U.S. trade tariffs and economic uncertainty, while a daring heist and debates around AI art captured public attention.

Gustav Klimt portrait sells for about R4 billion, breaking modern-art auction records

Gustav Klimt's portrait "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" (1914–1916) sold for $236.4 million (about R4 billion) at a Sotheby's auction in New York, becoming the most expensive modern artwork ever sold at auction and the second most expensive painting in history, behind only Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi." The sale, which featured works from the estate of billionaire collector Leonard Lauder, unfolded in a tense 20-minute bidding war among six collectors. The painting had been hidden from public view since the 1980s. The same auction also saw Maurizio Cattelan's 18-karat gold toilet "America" sell for over $12 million.