The most expensive painting ever sold at auction remains the Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for US$450 million in 2017.
“Full-length society portraits of this impressive scale and from Klimt’s pinnacle period (1912-17) are exceptionally rare; the majority in major museum collections,” Sotheby’s said of Tuesday’s sale.
“The painting offered this evening was one of only two such commissioned portraits remaining in private hands,” it added in a statement.
For Klimt, the past auction record for his work was held by Lady with a Fan, which sold for £85.3 million (US$108.8 million) in London in 2023.
Source: CNA
