A portrait by Gustav Klimt, crucial in saving the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust, fetched a staggering $236.4 million US at auction, setting a new record for modern art sales. The painting, titled Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, was sold by Sotheby’s in New York City after a 20-minute intense bidding war, making it the most expensive artwork ever sold by the fine art broker globally. The auction also featured a fully functional solid gold toilet that sold for $12.1 million, attracting attention as a symbol of wealth satire.
This Klimt masterpiece is one of only two full-length portraits by the Austrian artist that are still in private ownership and survived the Second World War unscathed. Created over a three-year period from 1914 to 1916, the painting portrays Elisabeth Lederer, the daughter of a prominent Viennese family, draped in an emperor’s cloak from East Asia. Unlike other Klimt works lost in a fire at an Austrian castle, this portrait was kept safe.
The vibrant artwork showcases the opulent lifestyle of the Lederer family before the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. Despite Nazi looting of the Lederer art collection, the family portraits, including this one, were spared as they were deemed “too Jewish” to be of value to the looters. Elisabeth Lederer’s ingenious claim that Klimt, who was not Jewish and had passed away in 1918, was her father, aided in her survival. This fabrication, coupled with the artist’s meticulous attention to her portrait, helped her secure a document from the Nazis affirming her fictitious lineage.
Previously owned by billionaire Leonard A. Lauder, heir to The Estée Lauder Companies, the painting’s buyer remains undisclosed by Sotheby’s. The sale surpassed the previous record set by an Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe, which sold for $195 million in 2022.
In the same auction, a provocative piece by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, a 101-kilogram, 18-karat-gold fully functioning toilet named America, was sold for $12.1 million. Cattelan, known for his daring art installations like taping a banana to a wall, described America as a mockery of extreme wealth. Sotheby’s hailed the toilet as a sharp critique on the intersection of art production and commercial value.
This golden toilet, owned by an anonymous collector, is not Cattelan’s only creation of its kind. Another similar piece was famously exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in 2016 and humorously offered to then-U.S. President Donald Trump for a loan when he sought a Van Gogh painting. Subsequently, the toilet was stolen from an exhibition at England’s Blenheim Palace, and although two individuals were convicted for the theft, the whereabouts of the toilet remain unknown, with speculations suggesting it might have been dismantled and melted down.
Before the auction, America was displayed at Sotheby’s New York headquarters, captivating art enthusiasts and critics alike with its thought-provoking symbolism.
