A painting by Gustav Klimt, which played a role in saving the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust, was auctioned for a record-breaking $236.4 million US at Sotheby’s in New York City. The piece, titled Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, had a 20-minute bidding war and became the most expensive modern artwork sold by the fine art broker worldwide. Notably, a fully functioning solid gold toilet was also sold at the auction for $12.1 million.
The painting is one of two full-length portraits by Klimt that survived the Second World War and remained privately owned. Completed between 1914 and 1916, it portrays Elisabeth Lederer, the daughter of a wealthy Viennese family, draped in an East Asian emperor’s cloak. The artwork was spared from destruction when other Klimt paintings burned in a fire at an Austrian castle.
The vibrant portrait captures the opulent lifestyle of the Lederer family before Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. Despite the Nazis looting the Lederer art collection, they left the family portraits untouched as they were deemed “too Jewish” to be stolen. In a clever attempt to protect herself, Elisabeth Lederer falsely claimed that Klimt, who passed away in 1918 and was not Jewish, was her father, supported by the meticulous work Klimt put into her portrait.
Formerly part of billionaire Leonard A. Lauder’s collection, the painting’s buyer remains undisclosed by Sotheby’s. This sale surpassed the previous record set by an Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe, which sold for $195 million in 2022.
Additionally, at the same auction, a satirical solid gold toilet named “America” by artist Maurizio Cattelan was sold for $12.1 million. The 18-karat-gold toilet, weighing 101 kilograms, mocks extreme wealth and was created by the provocative Italian artist known for his unconventional artworks. Cattelan humorously stated that regardless of one’s dining choices, the end result is the same when using a toilet.
Sotheby’s described the golden toilet as a sharp critique of the intersection between artistic production and commercial value. This specific toilet is not the only one created by Cattelan, with a previous one displayed at the Guggenheim Museum and another stolen from Blenheim Palace in England, suspected to have been dismantled and melted down.
Before the auction, “America” was exhibited at Sotheby’s New York headquarters.
