A portrait once stolen by the Nazis has become the second-most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, marking a major moment for the global art market and for Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.
The painting, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, survived war, theft, and near-destruction before reaching the record books. Researchers say the Nazis seized it during World War II. Later, it narrowly escaped a fire that destroyed much of the Lederer family’s art collection. Its survival and wartime story made Tuesday’s sale even more striking.
Intense bidding pushes the price to $236.4 million
Major news outlets reported that bidding at Sotheby’s in New York on Nov. 18 lasted about 20 minutes. The back-and-forth pushed the final price to $236.4 million, including fees.
The sale set a new auction record for Klimt and now ranks second only to Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450.3 million at Christie’s in 2017.
Sotheby’s calls it a major milestone
Helena Newman, Sotheby’s worldwide chairman of Impressionist and modern art, said the result marked a major moment for the auction house. She explained that setting a new record for Klimt was remarkable on its own, but the portrait becoming the most valuable piece ever sold at Sotheby’s made the achievement even more significant.
An incredibly rare Gustav Klimt painting, which was stolen by Nazis before eventually landing in the collection of Estée Lauder heir Leonard Lauder (who was Jewish), sold at Sotheby’s tonight for a record $236,360,000 (hammer of $205,000,000 plus premium).
This marked a record… pic.twitter.com/k9NSuiZFyo
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 19, 2025
Newman said Klimt’s work holds a rare, universal appeal that continues to resonate with collectors around the world.
Klimt’s patronage and the portrait’s origins
Klimt, a leading Symbolist painter, is best known for his 1907–08 masterpiece The Kiss, according to Sotheby’s. Serena and August Lederer, two of his closest patrons, commissioned the portrait of their daughter, Elisabeth, in 1916. Klimt completed the work two years before his death.
As war spread across Europe, Elisabeth—who was Jewish—faced growing danger. Sotheby’s says she claimed Klimt was her biological father. The claim was false, but the auction house says it helped protect her life during the Nazi era.
Wartime seizure and a narrow escape from destruction
The portrait was seized along with other Lederer family artworks during World War II. Many pieces were moved to Immendorf Castle. The structure burned near the end of the war, destroying much of the collection. The family portraits survived only because they had been moved to another location before the fire.
Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (c. 1916), by Gustav Klimt sold tonight @Sothebys for $236.4 million—the highest ever for a piece of modern art. pic.twitter.com/KZWO88bz8B
— The Art Curator (@SeekAfterBeauty) November 19, 2025
Return to the family and modern provenance
Sotheby’s says the portrait was returned to the Lederer family in 1948. It later entered the collection of Leonard A. Lauder, the billionaire heir to The Estée Lauder Companies. The New York Times reported that the painting hung in his Manhattan apartment for nearly four decades before his death in June.
Before the auction, specialists expected the portrait to reach about $150 million. The final price soared well beyond that estimate. In a sharp contrast, the Times noted that Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-karat gold toilet sold the same night for $12.1 million.
A work that shaped early modernism
Sotheby’s says the Klimt portrait reflects the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire while also standing as a key modernist work. The auction house describes it as bold in detail and rich in ornamentation, with an influence that helped shape the direction of twentieth-century art.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
