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There are probably only a handful of people in the world who have the money and interest to bid on Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” one of only two full-length paintings by the Austrian artist in private hands—and all of them did.
Six bidders competed for the portrait at Sotheby’s new global headquarters in New York on Monday night, launching the sale price far past its presale estimate of $150 million. The final hammer came down at $236.4 million with fees—making it the most expensive modern painting ever sold. (Only Leonardo da Vinci has sold for more.)
It was a record among records that evening, in which Sotheby’s inaugurated its new home at the Breuer Building with a $706 million haul and the best night in its 281-year history.
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Of the total, $400 million were paid for three Klimts, all from the collection of late art collector, tastemaker and patron Leonard A. Lauder, a major benefactor of the Whitney Museum of Art, formerly headquartered at the same Breuer Building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The remaining 21 items in Lauder’s collection all sold for a total of $127.5 million.
“He was one of the best of the best, one of the great collectors,” said art adviser Wendy Goldsmith of Lauder. “This is a once-in-a lifetime collection.”
The heart-pumping evening, which saw many pieces attract multiple bidders and sell above their presale estimates in addition to the Klimt, was a welcome break from a multi-year lull in the art market following a frenetic post-pandemic season.
The question is whether the exciting night is the beginning of a broader resurgence in the art market or simply reflects the quality of the specific works brought by Sotheby’s during the most important week of the year for art auctions.
“This isn’t any sale,” said Goldsmith, a former Christie’s manager whose advisory is based in both London and Palm Beach. “It doesn’t mean the entire art market rises with it, but it does bring a lot more confidence with it.”
Masha Golovina, executive vice president of acquisitions at art investment platform Masterworks, similarly felt that the blockbuster sale could spur the market forward. “Confidence is a big factor in liquidity and sales,” she said. “If there’s good confidence around auctions, they’ll be good confidence around private transactions.”
Additional records came in Sotheby’s “Now & Contemporary” collection, which brought in the remaining $178.5 million Monday night, with new highs paid for artists Cecily Brown, Antonio Obá, Yu Nishimura, Jess, and Noah Davis. In a 10-minute showdown, multiple bidders chased Brown’s “High Society” from a starting bid of $4 million to a final of $9.8 million, outpacing her previous record of $6.8 million set in 2018.
“It’s well deserved but still unexpected,” said Golovina, who tracks appreciation of artwork through same-work sales. “It sold in 2006 for just under $1 million, which at the time was a pretty big price for her.”
Other works by famous 20th-century artists that sold above estimates were Edvard Munch’s “Midsummer Night,” which went for $35.1 million; six Henri Matisse bronzes, which scored a total of $49 million; and a pen-and-ink drawing by Vincent van Gogh.
The demand for these pieces shows that collectors know value when they see it, said Naomi Baigell of Baigell Fine Arts Services.
“What you see with these marquee sales, they’re a little bit of an outlier. While they don’t mirror the broader market, they show that true scarcity attracts,” she said. “The middle market is still under pressure.”
That said, these sales are a sign of a steady improvement in confidence.
“Confidence is gradually rebuilding after the 2022 to 2023 market; there’s more consistency due to a return to fundamentals: provenance, condition, rarity,” Baigell said. “These are good examples of that.”
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“We’ve taken a breath, there’s been an adjustment and there’s nothing wrong with that because the market was getting overheated,” Goldsmith said. “There is this flight back to quality which is really refreshing to see.”
The hope is that this demand for tried-and-true quality will bring more sellers to the table, which will excite the collectors, and give confidence to the dealers in a virtuous cycle, Goldsmith said.
“The auction houses and the other guarantors will be much more willing to put money on the table in advance, which means really tempting out a lot of the trophies that these sellers might not have considered selling for the last few years.”
For now, all eyes will be on the next trophy sale taking place Thursday night, as Christie’s hosts its biggest auction of the year.
“We’re hoping that the strong sales this week, especially with the Klimt and some of the other records, will be a catalyst for the art market to start growing again,” Golovina said.
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