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.
The sale matters because it underscores the enduring strength of the high-end art market, with a single painting achieving a record price despite broader economic uncertainties. It also highlights the legacy of Leonard Lauder, a major philanthropist who donated his Cubist collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but retained other treasures, now offered to the public. The auction’s success, including Sotheby’s guarantee of some $400 million for the collection, demonstrates the auction house’s confidence in top-tier works and the continued appetite for masterpieces by iconic artists like Klimt.