Disputed Klimt portrait fetches more than $39m in Sotheby’s auction

A Gustav Klimt portrait of a young woman that had been the subject of an ownership dispute fetched the highest price of $39.1 million in an auction at Sotheby’s in London. Klimt’s “Portrait of Gertrud Loew — Gertha Felsovanyi” from 1902 was recently restituted to the heirs of the Viennese woman who sat for the portrait, which was left in the Austrian capital when its Jewish owners fled the city as the Nazis rose to power. It was the subject of what Sotheby’s said was a 10-minute bidding battle in which the price went up slowly by £100,000 ($157,000) increments, but eventually reached the second highest price for a portrait by the artist at auction.

To follow our highest totals for Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York, with another sensational sale in London, emphasises the strength of what is undoubtedly a truly global market.

Melanie Clore, Chairman, Sotheby’s Europe & Co-Chairman

Sales at the auction topped $280m, with 10 of the 51 lots on offer selling for more than $15.7m. Among them was an Edgar Degas cast bronze of a ballerina that sold for $25m, above its top estimate of $23.5m setting an auction record for a sculpture by the French artist, Sotheby’s said. The Sotheby’s auction eclipsed the $112.9m that arch-rival Christie’s tallied at its auction of Impressionist and Modernist works the evening before and underscored the strength in the market.

Arts Gustav Klimt