A portrait of a young woman by Austrian modernist artist Gustav Klimt, long thought to be lost, was sold at an auction in Vienna on Wednesday for an impressive 30 million euros ($32 million). The painting, titled “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser,” was one of Klimt’s last works, started in 1917, the year before his death.
The auction, held by Im Kinsky, began with a starting bid of 28 million euros, and the final sale price fell at the lower end of the expected range of 30-50 million euros. The painting was purchased by an unidentified bidder from Hong Kong. The auction house emphasized the rarity and significance of the artwork, stating that “a painting of such rarity, artistic significance, and value has not been available on the art market in Central Europe for decades.”
The intensely colored painting was auctioned on behalf of its current owners, Austrian private citizens whose names were not released, and the legal heirs of Adolf and Henriette Lieser, one of whom is believed to have commissioned the painting. The exact identity of the model from the Lieser family remains unclear.
When Klimt died of a stroke in early 1918, he left the painting partially unfinished in his studio. It was then given to the family who had commissioned it. The Jewish family fled Austria after 1930, losing most of their possessions.
The painting’s whereabouts between 1925 and the 1960s, a period that includes the Nazi dictatorship and Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938, are uncertain. While there is no evidence that the painting was confiscated during this time, there is also no proof that it wasn’t. The current owners inherited the painting through three successive inheritances.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding the painting’s history, an agreement was reached between the current owners and the Liesers’ heirs to proceed with the sale under the Washington Principles, which were established in 1998 to help resolve issues related to the return of Nazi-confiscated art.
The sale price set a new art auction record for Austria, surpassing the previous record of just over 7 million euros paid for a work by Frans Francken the Younger in 2010.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.