Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" was sold at Sotheby's in New York for $236.4 million. This sale makes the painting the most valuable modern artwork and the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.
The six-foot-tall painting, created by the Austrian artist between 1914 and 1916, depicts Elisabeth Lederer, the daughter of Klimt's patrons, wearing an imperial Chinese dragon robe. The artwork was looted by the Nazis during World War II.
Six bidders competed for the painting for nearly 19 minutes, driving the price significantly above its estimated $150 million. Sotheby's also noted that the painting narrowly avoided destruction, unlike other works by Klimt from the Lederer collection that were seized and later destroyed in a fire at the end of the war.
