Two years ago, Gustav Klimt’s final portrait — a vibrant portrait of an unidentified woman with a fan — topped the artist’s auction record when it sold for a staggering $108 million. The Austrian painter’s record is expected to be shattered again by a monumental, six-foot-tall portrait of a young heiress that was looted by the Nazis and nearly destroyed during World War II. Rarely seen for decades, it hung in the home of the Estée Lauder heir Leonard A. Lauder until the last years of his life (he passed away in June).
Next week, “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” is expected to sell for above $150 million as the top lot in a sale of Lauder’s collection, hosted by Sotheby’s. The collection, which includes two other works by Klimt — both landscapes of Lake Attersee, estimated above $70 and $80 million — could fetch more than $400 million combined.
Among the artist’s works, the portrait of Lederer, the daughter of his wealthiest Viennese patrons, is less known. Completed two years before Klimt’s death in 1918, the portrait features her in a gauzy, ornamental robe, surrounded by motifs from Chinese art. For many years, she kept a watchful eye over Lauder’s Fifth Avenue home in New York, with only occasional outings to be shown nearby, once at the Museum of Modern Art and a handful of times at Neue Galerie New York (founded by his brother). In 2017, however, Lauder loaned it to the National Gallery of Canada for its first extended stay, where it remained until earlier this year.
While in his home, the painting was a jewel of his collection, first displayed in his living room, then relocated to his dining room to make room for a large Cubist work by Fernand Léger, according to the art historian Emily Braun, who worked as Lauder’s art advisor for nearly four decades.
“He ate lunch whenever he was at home, and lunch would be at a little round table right by the painting,” she said over the phone.
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