Gustav Klimt's $100 Million portrait - artnet News Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) ©Neue Galerie New York. Nine years ago, when cosmetics magnate and top collector Ronald Lauder, co-founder of the Neue Galerie, shelled out a reported $135 million for Gustav Klimt ‘s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), many in the art world were stunned (see Why Ronald Lauder is Right About Nazi-Looted Art in Museums ). At that point, only one work had ever sold for more than $100 million at auction—according to public records—and that was Picasso’s undeniable Rose-period masterpiece Boy With a Pipe (1905) sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2004. No one cast any doubt on that landmark price. Not only was Picasso considered one of the best artists in the world—if not the best—that particular masterpiece also came with a sterling provenance. It had been tucked away in the blue chip collection of John Hay and Betsy Whitney for decades.

The Whitneys had acquired the work for $30,000 in 1950. Prior to that, the highest price for a work at auction was $82.5 million, paid in 1990 by a Japanese collector for Vincent Van Gogh ‘s 1890 Portrait of Dr. Gachet at the then-peaking art market (see 10 Game Changing Auctions and Do Riches Await In The Van Gogh Market?). How, market observers and art experts wondered aloud, had it been possible for Klimt—the Austrian Secessionist whose particular style was not exactly everyone’s cup of tea—managed to vault to four times more than his previous record of $29.3 million and far outstrip both of the records for heavyweights like Picasso and Van Gogh. In a New Yorker column in July 2006, critic Peter Schjeldahl said: “Is she worth the money? Not yet. Lauder’s outlay predicts a level of cost that must either soon become common or be relegated in history as a bid too far. And the identity of the artist gives pause….

Until a few years ago, the artist ranked as a second-tier modern master.” In a phone interview with the late Robert Rosenblum at the time, he told me that looking at Klimt, whose work he personally liked, was “like going to a Viennese bakery.” Klimt’s Portrait of Adele I was one of five paintings restituted to the heirs of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy sugar magnate whose wife Adele was the subject of the portrait. Nazis stole the works off the Bloch-Bauers’ walls in 1938 after Germany annexed Austria. Bloch-Bauer eventually fled the country. And the Belvedere Gallery eventually came to hold the works, citing a 1923 will by Adele (who died in 1925) that she had bequeathed the paintings to the institution (see Weinstein’s Nazi-Looted Klimt Restitution Film to Star Helen Mirren ). Maria Altmann, one of Bloch-Bauer’s heirs, fought for the return of the paintings for eight years and was ultimately successful in her efforts. She died in Los Angeles at age 94, in 2011.

The story is now the subject of a major Hollywood film, Woman in Gold, that opened April 1 and stars Helen Mirren as Altmann and Ryan Reynolds as her lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg. The Neue Galerie has just opened an exhibit devoted to the history of the painting, timed to coincide with the movie, including archival material, sketches, jewelry, and other Klimt paintings (see Gustav Klimt’s Real Woman in Gold Goes on View at the Neue Galerie ). In 2006, I interviewed Lauder and others about the acquisition and reported on the process for a story that appeared in ARTnews magazine in 2007. Lauder talked about his particular passion for the work of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele . Of the price for Adele I, Lauder told me in a phone interview “I didn’t even think of that. I knew there was nobody who wanted the painting more than me.” He called Adele I, “a once in a lifetime opportunity,” and has described it as the Neue Galerie’s Mona Lisa. Lauder said he first saw Klimt’s at age 14 on a trip to Austria.

After traveling with his family in France, he said he went on his own specifically to see the Klimt paintings that were hanging in the Belvedere. He described it as “like finding the Holy Grail. I was actually blown away by it. I had never seen such powerful images as The Kiss and Adele I.” At a time when the art world seemed obsessed with Claude Monet and French Impressionism, Lauder said there was “an excitement of discovery,” about Schiele and Klimt, because no one else he knew seemed to know about them. Some market observers said it was wrong to view the $135 million price as a battle of sorts between Klimt and Picasso. They said that the legendary backstory of the Adele portrait put the work on another plane altogether.

Members of the $100 Million Club Lauder Pays $135 Million, a Record, for a Klimt Portrait - The New York Times The New York Times Art & Design |Lauder Pays $135 Million, a Record, for a Klimt Portrait Search Continue reading the main story A dazzling gold-flecked 1907 portrait by Gustav Klimt has been purchased for the Neue Galerie in Manhattan by the cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder for $135 million, the highest sum ever paid for a painting. The portrait, of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist and the hostess of a prominent Vienna salon, is considered one of the artist's masterpieces. For years, it was the focus of a restitution battle between the Austrian government and a niece of Mrs. Bloch-Bauer who argued that it was seized along with four other Klimt paintings by the Nazis during World War II. In January all five paintings were awarded to the niece, Maria Altmann, now 90, who lives in Los Angeles, and other family members. Although confidentiality agreements surrounding the sale forbid Mr.

Lauder to disclose the price, experts familiar with the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he paid $135 million for the work. In a telephone interview Mr. Lauder did not deny that he had paid a record amount for the painting, eclipsing the $104.1 million paid for Picasso's 1905 "Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)" in an auction at Sotheby's in 2004. "This is our Mona Lisa," said Mr. Lauder, a founder of the five-year-old Neue Galerie, a tiny museum at Fifth Avenue and 86th Street devoted entirely to German and Austrian fine and decorative arts. "It is a once-in-a-lifetime acquisition." He said Christie's had helped him negotiate the purchase. Continue reading the main story For most of the last 60 years the portrait has hung in the Austrian Gallery in the Belvedere Palace in Vienna near "The Kiss," another gold-flecked Klimt masterpiece of the Art Nouveau era. With its sinuous lines and intricate details, the painting, "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," was commissioned by the subject's husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. Mrs.

Bloch-Bauer died of meningitis in 1925 at 43. In her will she requested that the painting and four others by Klimt that the couple owned be left to Austria upon her husband's death. But when Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, Mr. Bloch-Bauer fled, leaving all of his possessions behind. The Nazi government confiscated his property, placed three of the paintings in the Austrian Gallery and sold the rest. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Before Mr. Bloch-Bauer died, in November 1945, having spent the war years in Switzerland, he revoked all previous wills and drafted a new one. Since he and Adele had no children, he left his entire estate to three children of his brother Gustav: Robert, Luise and Maria. Of the three, only Maria Altmann is still living: she and her husband, Fritz, fled Austria during the war and settled in Los Angeles in 1942. She has a niece and two nephews; a cousin of her brother's second wife also survives. In a telephone interview on Friday Mrs. Altmann said she had met Mr.

Lauder, a former American ambassador to Austria, some years ago and that she had visited the Neue Galerie when it first opened in November 2001. "Mr. Lauder has a great understanding of Austria and a great love for Klimt," she said, adding that neither she nor her relatives felt it was practical for any of them to keep the painting, which depicts her aunt, whom she remembers from her childhood but who died when she was just 9. That Mrs. Altmann and her relatives have possession of the painting is a tale of perseverance and tenacity. After the war the family tried to regain their stolen possessions, including the paintings, porcelains, palaces and the sugar company founded by Mr. Bloch-Bauer. Much of the artwork was divided up among the top Nazis, including Hitler and Hermann Göring; Reinhardt Hedrick, a Nazi commander, occupied a summer palace owned by Mr. Bloch-Bauer outside Prague. The heirs were able to recover some of the works, but the Austrian authorities ruled that Mrs. Bloch-Bauer's will had essentially bequeathed the Klimts to Austria. Without access to the original documents, the family had no case.

By the mid-1980's journalists had begun investigating the restitution claim, and in 1998 Hubertus Czernin, a Viennese journalist researching the case for The Boston Globe, was able to find the documents, including Mrs. Bloch-Bauer's will, which expressed a wish — but did not require — that the Klimts go to Austria. Photo A detail from Gustav Klimt's 1907 portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I." Credit Museum Associates/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images In 2000 Mrs. Altmann and the other heirs sued the Austrian government in the United States. Austria went to court to seek a dismissal of the suit, and the case wended its way to the United States Supreme Court, which in June 2004 ruled that Mrs. Altmann could sue Austria in the United States. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In January an arbitration tribunal in Austria decided in favor of Mrs. Altmann and her fellow heirs, awarding them the five paintings.

In addition to "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" they include a second portrait of Adele, from 1911, and three landscapes: "Beechwood" (1903), "Apple Tree I" (circa 1911) and "Houses in Unterach on Lake Atter" (1916). After the settlement, Steven Thomas, the lawyer representing the Bloch-Baur heirs, said he had been approached by museums and collectors around the world who were interested in buying one or more of the paintings. Mrs. Altmann said he had felt especially receptive to Mr. Lauder because throughout all the years the family was struggling to reclaim the art, he consistently kept in touch with her, offering to help in any way he could. "He was incredibly generous and constantly supportive," she said. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy In April Mrs. Altmann and her heirs lent the paintings to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where they remain on view through June 30.

Then the five works will travel to the Neue Galerie, where "Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings From the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer" will be on view from July 13 through Sept. 18. Mrs. Altmann said that when the gold portrait of her aunt finally hangs in the Neue Galerie, she will feel that it is finally where it belongs. The painting, which took Klimt three years to create, shows her aunt regally posed, with a mysterious gaze, sensuous red lips and her hands twisted near her face to conceal a deformed finger. He used gold throughout the richly painted background and in the glistening fabric of Adele's patterned gown. Art historians and chroniclers of Vienna society in the early 20th century have suggested that the artist and Ms. Bloch-Bauer were lovers. "I never saw her smile," Mrs. Altmann recalled in Friday in the interview. "She was always very serious and wore flowing white dresses and carried a gold cigarette holder when it was very unusual for women to smoke. She would have loved to have been a woman of today, to go to university and to get involved in government." Mrs.

Bloch-Bauer was known for giving frequent parties and surrounding herself with many of the great artists, politicians and intellectuals of the day, among them the composer Richard Strauss. "She didn't have teas for ladies like my mother," Ms. Altmann said. That wasn't down her alley." She said although Adele was very close to Mrs. Altmann's mother, Therese, she also seemed to resent her at times because Therese had a house full of healthy children and Adele had endured three tragic births. (One child died three days after it was born, and two others died within hours.) She remembers asking her mother about the rumored love affair between Klimt and her aunt. "My mother got mad and said, 'How dare you ask such a thing? It was an intellectual friendship,' " she recalled. "But I think it was very possible there was a romance." Of Klimt, who died in 1918, when Ms. Altmann was just a toddler, she remembers hearing that he often wore a floor-length smock with nothing underneath. Advertisement Continue reading the main story After Adele died, seven years after Klimt, her husband created a kind of shrine to her in what had been their bedroom.

"The Klimts were always in the bedroom, but after she died, the bed was removed and there were always fresh flowers," Mrs. Altmann said. As for the other four paintings, experts estimate that they are together worth some $100 million. The fate of these four has yet to be determined. "I can't decide," Mrs. Altmann said. "Maybe after they leave the Neue Galerie, they will go to Christie's. I very much hope they end up in museums. But for now I am just happy they have a home at the Neue Galerie. It is very deserved. I couldn't have wished for a better place." Correction: June 27, 2006 An article in The Arts on June 19 about the purchase of "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," a portrait by Gustav Klimt, for the Neue Galerie by Ronald S. Lauder misstated the context in which an Austrian journalist uncovered crucial documents about the work in 1998. The journalist, Hubertus Czernin, was conducting independent research in Austria when he found a will by Ms.

Bloch-Bauer mentioning the portrait; he was not researching the case for The Boston Globe. (Austria turned over the painting this year to a niece of Ms. Bloch-Bauer, Maria Altmann of Los Angeles, who sold it to Mr. Lauder.) A version of this article appears in print on , on Page E7 of the New York edition with the headline: Lauder Pays $135 Million, a Record, for a Klimt Portrait. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe No. 10 - "Adele Bloch-bauer II", Klimt - Modigliani's "Nu Couché" sells for $170.4 million - second most expensive painting ever sold at auction - Pictures - CBS News Next No. 1 - "Les Femmes d'Alger", Picasso Pablo Picasso's "Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O)" became the most expensive art ever sold at auction for the staggering price of $179 million on May 11, 2015... topping a list of paintings by illustrious international artists.

The Christie's New York auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen, who sold the painting, referred to the work as "the Mozart of 20th-century painting." By CBSNews.com Senior Photo Editor Radhika Chalasani Credit: via Christie's No. 1 - "Les Femmes d'Alger", Picasso Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen takes bids on Pablo Picasso's "Women of Algiers (Version O)," which sold for just over $179 million, setting a world record for art at auction during a sale at Christie's, New York, May 11, 2015. Credit: Kathy Willens/AP No. 1 - O'Keeffe - Priciest female artist Georgia O'Keeffe's 1932 "Jimson Weed, White Flower No. 1," smashed records May 20, 2015 when it sold for $44.4 million to an anonymous buyer -- a price three times larger than the previous auction record for a female artist. Joan Mitchell held the title for highest-selling female artist for an untitled 1960 painting at $11.9 million.

O'Keefe's painting depicts one of the artist's favorite subjects: a magnified flower. O'Keeffe said, "When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else." Credit: Sotheby's No. 2 - “Nu Couché” Amedeo Modigiani's "Nu Couché" sold for $170.4 million with fees November 9, 2015 at Christie's New York in just nine minutes. Originally estimated at $100 million, it became the second most expensive painting sold at auction. The buyer from China placed the bid by phone. Credit: via Christie's No. 3 - "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" Painted by Francis Bacon in 1969, the life-size triptych "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" depicts Bacon's friend Lucian Freud on a wooden chair. Bacon is one of the greatest modern artists of the mid-20th century.

The painting was part of the Christie's, New York sale of post-war and contemporary art auction on November 12, 2013, and was estimated at $85 million. However, a bidding war between seven buyers ultimately pushed the sale price up to $142.4 million. Credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images No. 4 - "The Scream", Edvard Munch Norwegian artist Edvard Munch's 1895 pastel on board version of "The Scream" is one of the greatest expressionist masterpieces of all time. Until "Les Femmes d'Algers" made headlines, it was the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, going for $119.9 million at Sotheby's New York in 2012. "The Scream" is also the most expensive pastel drawing. It's been described as an 'expression of personal suffering' because of the artist's tragic family history, which included a sister kept in an asylum, where screams could reportedly be heard outside. Three other versions of the painting exist. Credit: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images No.

4 - "The Scream", Edvard Much Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' is auctioned at Sotheby's May 2012 Sales of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art in New York City, May 2, 2012. The masterpiece is one of four versions created by Munch and the only one that is privately owned. The masterpiece sold for over $119 million. Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images No. 5 - "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" Pablo Picasso's 1932 "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust", estimated at $70 million to 90 million prior to sale, sold for $106.5 million at Christie's in New York inMay 4, 2010. The painting is known as the 'lost Picasso' since it hadn't been seen in public for 60 years. It had previously changed hands back in 1951 for a mere $18,000. Credit: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images No.

6 - "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) The 1963 two panel "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)" by Andy Warhol, sold for $105.4 million at Sotheby's New York in 2013. It is the last in a series of four pieces depicting a car crash. The left side is a set of 15 photos of a car accident. The right side is a large silver rectangle. It surpassed Warhol's previous auction record for Pop Art ("Green Car Crash, 1963) by $30 million. Here, the artwork is on display during a press preview of the auction of contemporary art, at Sotheby's in New York, November 1, 2013. The painting has only been seen once in public since 1987 and was sold to an unknown buyer. Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images No.

7 - "Garcon a la Pipe", Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso's "Garcon a la Pipe" reached it's $104.2 million price tag in just seven minutes of bidding at Soethby's New York in 2004, a record price for a Picasso until it was surpassed by the sale of "Les Femmes D'Alger". Here, two Sotheby's employees hold up "Garcon a la Pipe" May 5, 2004 during the auction. The great master, Picasso has four paintings in the top 10 list which makes him perhaps one of the most valuable twentieth century painters of all time to date. Credit: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty, AFP/Getty Images No. 8 - "Nurse" The 1964 pop art creation "Nurse" by American artist Roy Lichtenstein sold for $95.4 million at a Christie's New York, part of a curated sale The Artist's Muse on November 9, 2015. It was a record for the Pop artist. The masterpiece, with the artist's signature Ben-Day dots, was painted at the height of Lichtenstein's career.

The auction house described the subject as a "quintessential Lichtenstein heroine" borrowed from a comic romance novel of the early 1960s. The comic book-style painting previously sold at auction for $1.7 million in 1995. Credit: via Christie's No. 9 - "Dora Maar with Cat", "Dora Maar with Cat," one of the largest and most important portraits of Picasso's mistress and muse, was painted in 1941. Estimated at $50 million, it sold for $95.2 million, making it the second most expensive painting sold by an auction house in the history of art. It hadn't been shown to the public for almost 40 years. Credit: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images No. 10 - "Adele Bloch-bauer II", Klimt Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II," painted in 1912, sold at auction in 2006 for $87.9 million. It is one of two well-known versions; the first version had a gold backdrop. Klimt is considered one of the best portrait artists of pre-war Europe.

Here, Christie's staff work the phones and take bids as an image of Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II" is projected on the screen during the Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in New York, November 8, 2006. The painting sold for $87,936,000. Credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images No. 11 - "Orange, Red, Yellow", Rothko Mark Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow" sold at a Christie's, New York auction in 2012 for $86.9 million, rendering it the most expensive abstract painting by a 20th century painter. Credit: Cate Gillon/Getty Images No. 12 - "Triptych", Francis Bacon Francis Bacon's 1976 "Triptych" had a pre-sale estimate of $70 million, but ultimately sold for $86.3 million in 2008 at a Sotheby's New York Contemporary Art Sale. The painting is considered one of Bacon's most complex and creative.

Credit: Cate Gillon/Getty Images The Bloch-Bauer Klimts The Bloch-Bauer Klimts Art History Expert By Shelley Esaak An Austrian arbitration court ruled on January 17, 2006 that the Gustav Klimt paintings Birkenwald/Buchenwald (1903), Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912), Apfelbaum (ca. 1912) and Häuser in Unterach am Attersee (ca. 1916) had been wrongfully appropriated from the Viennese merchant Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer during the National Socialist ("Nazi") era. The court found that all five should be restored without charge to the Bloch-Bauer heirs. The central personality in this International case is Maria Altmann, an elderly U.S. citizen. She was born Maria Viktoria Bloch in Vienna in 1916, daughter of Dr. Gustav Bloch, a lawyer, and his wife Theresa ("Teddi") Bauer. Mrs.

Altmann's father and Ferdinand were brothers who'd married the sisters Theresa and Adele Bauer - thus making Ferdinand and Adele what we sometimes call a "double" uncle and aunt. Both couples legally changed their family name to "Bloch-Bauer" when Maria was around two years old. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States The two families were extremely close. Ferdinand and Adele had no children of their own, but spent nearly every Sunday and parts of each summer entertaining Maria and her four elder siblings. Though both families were prosperous, Ferdinand, a sugar merchant, was clearly more so. He had a mansion in Vienna and a castle in Czechoslovakia, and collected paintings by Austrian artists, porcelains, tapestries and furniture. After the turn of the 20th-century, he began commissioning and purchasing the work of Gustav Klimt. Of seven total Klimts purchased by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, two were portraits of his wife, Adele - most importantly, the 1907 piece Adele Bloch-Bauer I popularly known as the "Gold Adele," after Klimt's use of that precious metal in its execution.

Prior to her early death from tuberculosis in 1925, Adele Bloch-Bauer requested that her husband donate the two portraits and one Klimt landscape to the (National) Austrian Gallery upon his death. Though this request was not enforceable by law (Ferdinand, not Adele, owned the paintings), Herr Bloch-Bauer agreed to follow his wife's wishes. However, all five paintings were confiscated when the Jewish Bloch-Bauers' real estate holdings and personal property were put under "Protective Custody" by the National Socialist party in 1938. After his entire estate had been either sold or appropriated by others, Ferdinand died, nearly penniless, in Zürich, Switzerland in November 1945. The final version of his will, written in October 1945, made no mention of donating any of his property to a museum - indeed, as far as he could tell at that time, he had no property left to dispense.

Still, with the promise that State repatriations were supposed to be made, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer stipulated that his nephew, Robert, and nieces Luise and Maria would split his estate at 25%, 50% and 25% respectively. Meanwhile, Maria, a newlywed, had escaped Austria in 1938 with her husband, Fritz (this occurred quickly after he was released from a concentration camp after "deeding" all of his personal holdings to the Nazis), the coats on their backs and one passport between them. Most of the Bloch-Bauers eventually made their ways to North America, though Gustav died in Austria in 1938. After Ferdinand's death and the end of WWII, the three Bloch-Bauer siblings - now with their own children, and then grandchildren - spent decades attempting to re-secure bits and pieces of their uncle's estate (mostly through the efforts of a lawyer friend-of-the-family who'd remained in Austria) with very little good outcome. Then, in September of 1998, the Austrian government announced that it would return to their rightful owners works of art that had been illegally seized by the Nazis.

As anyone who's ever hired a lawyer will testify, Maria Altmann took an enormous risk in pursuing the Klimt paintings. She had to liquefy meager assets to proceed with the (several) trials, and there was no guarantee her side would "win." Furthermore, court costs were based on the estimated total value of the works at stake, roughly $150 million (US). The five paintings considered under the January 17th ruling were transported to Los Angeles, California. Per Maria Altmann's wishes to put them on public display, they were seen at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from April 4-June 30, 2006. Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) was purchased in June, 2006 by billionaire Ronald Lauder for a reported $135 million (US). It hangs in the Neue Galerie in New York City, a museum Lauder co-conceived with his late friend, museum administrator and art dealer Serge Sabarsky. All five paintings were again on display together at the Neue Galerie from July 13-October 9, 2006.

At the end of this viewing, four of the five paintings were consigned to Christie's by Maria Altmann. They went up at auction in the Impressionist and Modern Art sales on November 8, 2006, at Christie's Rockefeller Plaza, New York branch. Their gavel prices were as follows in USD: Birkenwald/Buchenwald (1903) - $40,336,000 Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) - $87,900,000 Apfelbaum (ca. 1912) - $33,056,000 Häuser in Unterach am Attersee (ca. 1916) - $31,376,000 A sixth painting, Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl (unfinished, 1917-18), is the subject of a separate lawsuit also seeking its repatriation to the Bloch-Bauer heirs. The Austrian Supreme Court has thus far rejected the heirs' claims, but the case remains on appeal.

The seventh Klimt once part of the Adele and Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer collection, Schloss Kammer am Attersee III (1910), was purchased by the Austrian Gallery in 1961. It will remain there. Four more Klimts up for auction - Arts - Entertainment - theage.com.au Four more Klimts up for auction Large font August 8, 2006 - 1:13AM A Jewish woman who went to court to win back five Gustav Klimt paintings taken from her forebears by the Nazis will sell the remaining works from her collection after the first fetched a record $US135 million ($A176 million). US-based Maria Altmann, 90-year-old niece of the Bloch-Bauers who originally owned them, had decided to part with the works, which had a combined value estimated at between $US100 million ($A130.7 million) and $US150 million ($A196 million), Christie's auctioneers said today.

The collection hit the headlines in June when it was reported that Klimt's golden 1907 portrait of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, had been bought by cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder for $135 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting. The portrait is considered one of the Austrian artist's masterpieces and was the most valuable of the five paintings owned by Altmann, experts say. The remaining four were painted between 1903 and 1916, and include another portrait from 1912 of Adele Bloch-Bauer, who art experts have long speculated was Klimt's lover. The later portrait signals the artist's move away from his "golden period" that also included "The Kiss", arguably his most famous painting. The other three works that will go on sale are "Houses in Unterach on Lake Atter" (1916), "Apple Tree I" (1911 or 1912) and "Birch Forest" (1903). A spokeswoman for Christie's in London said the four remaining paintings would probably be sold privately rather than at open auction.

Bloch-Bauer indicated in her will that Klimt's paintings should be donated to the Austrian State Gallery. However, after her death in 1925, her widowed and childless husband was forced to flee Austria when the Nazis took over. His property, including the Klimts, was confiscated in 1938 and the paintings ended up in Vienna's Austrian Gallery Belvedere. Altmann and other Bloch-Bauer heirs began their battle to reclaim the works in 1998, first in Austria and then in the United States, where the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that Altmann could sue the Austrian government. Austrian authorities agreed in January to return all five paintings. The sale of the Klimts is at least the third high-profile restitution case in the art world in recent months. In June, a painting by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele, seized by the Nazis during World War II, fetched nearly $US22 million ($A28.75 million) at an auction in London.

A painting by German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, returned to the heirs of its Jewish owners by a German museum last month, will go on sale at Christie's in New York on November 8 and is expected to fetch between $US18 million ($A23.5 million) and $US25 million ($A32.7 million). REUTERS Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer Paintings Reunited | artnet News By Eileen Kinsella , Apr 2, 2015 The more famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907), nicknamed Woman in Gold for its dazzling use of lustrous gold embellishments, is a prime example of the artist’s “Golden Style.” It was the subject of the film of the same name starring Helen Mirren as Block-Bauer’s niece Maria Altmann and Ryan Reynolds as her lawyer in her fight to reclaim her aunt’s paintings. Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912). Courtesy Jonathan Muzikar.

After eight years, Altmann successfully won her legal battle with the Austrian government, and she and her family were granted ownership of the five Klimts. Bloch-Bauer was the only subject the artist ever painted twice in full length. Following their victory, the family sold the works, and the Neue Galerie snapped up first Bloch-Bauer canvas at auction for $135 million in 2006, then a record sum. The other four paintings went to private buyers. Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914–16). Courtesy of the Neue Galerie. Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912), a more conventional work in jewel tones, surfaced at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in September 2014, as part of a long-term loan. In the upcoming exhibition, the two works will be shown alongside 12 paintings, 40 drawings, and 40 works of decorative art, as well as vintage photographs of Klimt.

The museum has also commissioned Shanghai-based artist and designer Han Feng to create three one-of-a-kind outfits based on the designs of Viennese fashion designer Emilie Flöge, who was responsible for the clothes worn by many of Klimt’s subjects, including Bloch-Bauer in the iconic “Woman in Gold” painting. Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Mäda Primavesi (1912). Courtesy of the Neue Galerie and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While the two Bloch-Bauer works will be a highlight of the exhibition, she will share the stage with several other ladies who starred in Klimt’s major society portraits, including Gertha Loew (1902) and Mäda Primavesi (1912), as well as Szerena Lederer (1899) and her daughter Elisabeth Lederer (1914–16). Along with the the unfinished Portrait of Ria Munk III (1917), these works will demonstrate the evolution of Klimt’s portrait style throughout his career, showing his range from Symbolism and Pre-Raphaelite-inspired works to Fauvist-style depictions.

“Klimt and the Women of Vienna’s Golden Age, 1900–1918” will be on view at the Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Avenue, September 22, 2016–January 16, 2017. The Woman in Gold | Christie's Corporate Social Responsibility The Woman in Gold Tom Teodorczuk on the remarkable restitution story behind one of Gustav Klimt's most iconic works, now the subject of a major Hollywood movie The mesmerising radiance of Adele Bloch-Bauer’s gaze in Gustav Klimt’s gold-flecked 1907 portrait of her provides no hint of the turbulent fate that lay in store for the painting. Commissioned by her sugar-industrialist husband Ferdinand, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I took Klimt three years to create, and was completed amid speculation that the Austrian artist and his high-society subject were lovers. Following Adele’s death in 1925 from meningitis, the masterpiece remained in the Bloch-Bauers’ Vienna townhouse until the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938.

Targeted amid the Nazis’ cultural looting spree, it was one of five Klimt paintings taken from the Bloch-Bauer residence, with the pictures ending up in Vienna’s Belvedere Gallery. Ferdinand died in exile in Switzerland in 1945. The Nazis also stole an engagement ring belonging to Maria Altmann, Adele’s niece. Altmann escaped from Austria, making her way to Los Angeles with her husband, where she opened a dress boutique. When the Austrian government passed a restitution law in 1998, ruling that property stolen by the Nazis could be returned to its rightful owners, Maria Altmann — now in her 80s — began a legal battle to regain the Klimts that belonged to her family, which included a second portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. She partnered with inexperienced lawyer Randol Schoenberg — grandson of her aunt’s composer friend Arnold Schoenberg — for what became a protracted battle for justice against the Austrian authorities, the latter erroneously arguing that they legally owned the pictures.

Video: The trailer for Woman in Gold Altmann needed to obtain proof that Adele’s stated wish to leave the paintings to the Belvedere Museum was superseded by the will of Ferdinand (the legal owner), who named his nieces as heirs, and secure a ruling from the United States Supreme Court, permitting her to sue Austria in an American court. An arbitration panel in Vienna would ultimately award Altmann ownership of the paintings. In June 2006 cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder purchased Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for $135 million — then the highest price ever paid for a painting — for display in Manhattan’s Neue Galerie, a sale brokered by Christie’s. The other Klimts were sold at a Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art later that year. In 2007 filmmaker Simon Curtis happened to see a BBC documentary about Altmann, Stealing Klimt, and unsurprisingly thought the remarkable tale was tailor-made for Hollywood. His resulting movie is Woman in Gold, starring Dame Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann and Ryan Reynolds as her lawyer, Schoenberg.

The film switches between Adele Bloch-Bauer in turn-of-the-century Vienna, the upheaval suffered by the family in the wake of the Nazi occupation of Austria, and Maria’s legal crusade towards the end of her life (she died in 2011). ‘It’s a courtroom drama, an escape thriller and an odd-couple film,’ comments Curtis. A courtroom scene from Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann, the niece of Klimt’s muse, and Ryan Reynolds as E Randol ‘Randy' Schoenberg, her lawyer. Photograph by Robert Viglasky The one constant is Klimt’s portrait itself. ‘It’s a witness to the themes of the film,’ Curtis says. ‘It’s the Mona Lisa of Austria, but it’s also symbolic of the golden years of Vienna. This happens to be a masterpiece that you can find on jam jars, slippers and T-shirts, but nothing about the reproductions prepares you for its magnificence when you first see it.’ According to Curtis, Woman in Gold is not merely the narrative of a painting, but a portrait of a century. ‘It’s one of the great stories of the 20th century,’ he notes.

‘Maria was born during that remarkable time in Vienna when it had become the crucible for all the great ideas of the 20th century. Art, music, science and psychology were merging together. Then there was this extraordinary chain of events, and at the conclusion of the century both Maria and the painting ended up in the United States.’ Woman in Gold wears its heart, as well as its art, on its sleeve. ‘It’s about an emotional connection with the paintings because they were on the wall of this family home that has been destroyed,’ Curtis says. The fact that Mirren and Curtis themselves descend from families that fled wartime Eastern Europe during the 20th century enhanced their affinity with Altmann, although they never met her. ‘We talked to Randi a lot but, probably even better, we watched hours and hours of Maria’s interviews, which gave Helen and I a real sense of who she was,’ says Curtis.

Mirren said recently: ‘Through the material I had the great pleasure of getting to know Maria Altmann, who was such a remarkable, wonderful, funny, sexy, witty, humane and great woman.’ Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907. Oil, silver, and gold on canvas. © 2015. Neue Galerie New York/Art Resource/Scala, Florence Stephen Lash, Chairman Emeritus of Christie's Americas, did know Maria Altmann very well, originally through his interest in restitution cases. ‘Maria was one of the most memorable people I’ve ever met,’ he says. ‘She’s the kind of person you would walk into a restaurant with and the maître d' would stand and talk to her. If you got into a cab with her, you did so at your peril because the cab driver wouldn’t be watching the traffic. He would be turning around and talking to this charming woman in the back.’ Lash had a ringside seat as Altmann fought her legal battle against the Austrian government to reclaim her family’s property.

‘What I remember was her total lack of self-interest and total lack of greed,’ he says, adding that her motivations were as pure as the film portrays. ‘I have no doubt it was righting a wrong,’ he answers when asked what drove Maria to go to the lengths she did to achieve recompense. ‘She did it in the most elegant and correct, gentle but powerful way.’ Altmann was incredibly loyal as well as tenacious, he adds, citing both her decision to retain Schoenberg, thereby ignoring advice to hire a more experienced lawyer, and her choosing Christie’s to sell the Klimts once she was awarded the paintings. ‘Her lawyers kept saying to her, “We’ve got to make this competitive between the auction houses and you’ve got to get the best possible deal.” Maria said, “You can do whatever you want but I’m going with Lash!”.’ The Austrian authorities underestimated their octogenarian opponent. ‘I remember Maria telling me she went to Vienna and met with one of the ministries, and she was willing to do a deal with them on the basis that they got the portraits and that the family got back the landscapes,’ Lash recalls.

‘She would have settled on that basis and they would have got the gold portrait, but they said, “Nothing doing”. That’s when she pursued the case.’ Adele Bloch-Bauer wearing a dress from the ‘Wiener Werkstaette’, around 1910. Photo: akg-images/ullstein bild With the help of the late investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin, played in the film by Daniel Brühl, Maria proved that Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer had named his nieces as heirs. At times, said Lash, the fight was farcical. ‘I had a good time watching the expressions of the judges during the Supreme Court case, particularly Judge [Clarence] Thomas who dozed off for a good part of the hearing. I kept a record based on their facial expressions of who would be voting which way, and I wasn’t far wrong.’ Austria vs. Altmann was a landmark case for restitution according to Monica Dugot, International Director of Restitution at Christie’s. ‘It was at a time when, while there were a number of restitution claims pending, there hadn’t been such a major victory,’ she explains.

‘Many claimants had tried to recover their cultural heritage and given up because of the obstacles in their way. Whenever a family sees a huge success like this it inspires other families to have the courage to think, “Let's go for it and try to recover our family property and heritage”.’ Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds and the famous work by Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907. Photograph by Robert Viglasky Once Maria Altmann had reclaimed her property Lash introduced her to Ronald Lauder, who bought Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for the Neue Galerie, where it presently spearheads an exhibition to coincide with the film. ‘We knew that it would become the most expensive picture ever sold,’ says Lash. ‘But it was a high risk to put it at auction because at that time there were no similar Klimts that had ever approached anything more than $5 million.

So it made sense for us to sell the most valuable piece at $130 million on a private basis, and with that comparable established in the market, to offer the other four pieces at auction.’ Altmann’s four Klimt paintings were sold at a record-breaking Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in November 2006. ‘It was one of the most extraordinary sales I was ever involved in,’ recalls the evening’s auctioneer, Christopher Burge. ‘The highlight was the Klimts, which far and away exceeded anything we thought they were going to bring.’ For Lash the sale reinforced the notion that, ‘The auction world is a business based on relationships, not transactions.’ Prior to joining Christie’s he was a Vice-President at S.G. Warburg & Co, and paraphrasing Siegmund Warburg’s dictum on bankers, he says, ‘You can’t be someone’s auctioneer until you’re their friend. Maria Altmann was my friend.’ The fight for restitution will go on long after Woman in Gold has left cinemas.

‘Although many families have been looking for their property for more than 65 years, the evolution and the infrastructure of the field has made it much more possible to locate and restitute objects than in the past,’ said Monica Dugot. ‘With greater access and availability of resources, heirs are coming forward as there are still hundreds of thousands of works still missing. The story is far from over.’ 15 June 2016 $491 Million Sale Shatters Art Auction Record - The New York Times The New York Times Art & Design |$491 Million Sale Shatters Art Auction Record Search Continue reading the main story In a landmark sale, the biggest in auction history, nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of art changed hands last night at Christie’s sale of Impressionist and modern art. Soaring prices for blockbuster paintings by Klimt and Gauguin left thousands of spectators, who came to watch and to buy, gasping. “It was certainly the most amazing sale I’ve ever taken,” said a dazed Christopher Burge, honorary chairman of Christie’s and the evening’s auctioneer, after the two-and-a-half hour sale.

The evening’s total, $491.4 million, was well over $200 million more than that for any previous auction, topping its high estimate of $427.8 million. (The previous record was $269 million at Christie’s in May 1990.) Of the 84 lots up for sale last night, only 6 failed to sell. The sale included an estimated $125 million worth of artworks that had recently been returned to the heirs of owners from whom they were looted by the Nazis during World War II. Before restitution, five had been hanging in museums. Continue reading the main story Heading that group were four paintings by Klimt that were recently on view at the Neue Galerie in Manhattan along with his “Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” which Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetics heir, privately bought for the gallery in June for $135 million. Advertisement Continue reading the main story That price was only one of the factors that contributed to a night of bidding frenzy, along with the great wealth being accumulated in world financial markets and the high quality of the works on offer.

The Klimts, the stars of the evening, were originally in the collection of the turn-of-the century sugar industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer and his wife, Adele, a prominent hostess. In January, an arbitration court ruled that the paintings had been improperly seized when the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. They were then handed over to a niece of Mrs. Bloch-Bauer, Maria Altmann of Los Angeles, who watched last night’s sale from a skybox at Christie’s. Often, what she saw was pure auction theater. Photo The telephone bank at Christies during bidding for Klimts Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912). The portrait sold for $87.9 million. Credit Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times When “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II,” a 1912 portrait of Mrs. Bloch-Bauer in fashionable street clothes and a wide-brimmed hat, came up for sale, four telephone bidders tenaciously went for the painting, which was expected to sell for $40 million to $60 million. Mr.

Burge carefully proceeded in $500,000 increments. When the price rose to $74 million and the competition was down to two bidders, Guy Bennett, head of Christie’s Impressionist and modern art department in New York, dramatically raised his hand and began bidding aggressively for an anonymous client on the telephone. Mr. Bennett’s buyer won, paying $87.9 million, a record for the artist. The salesroom burst into applause. Before the auction, Mr. Lauder had said he would love to buy that portrait for the Neue Galerie if the price was right. All Christie’s would say was that the buyer was a private collector. The three other Klimts, all landscapes, also brought strong prices. Five bidders went for “Birch Forest” (1903), one of the artist’s few woodland scenes, depicting an autumn scene of fallen leaves. Another telephone bidder finally paid $40.3 million, well above its high estimate of $30 million.

“Houses at Unterach on the Attersee” (1916), a view of a resort town in the Austrian countryside that was estimated at $18 million to $25 million, sold for $31 million to an unidentified couple sitting in the front of the salesroom. Another telephone duel was waged for “Apple Tree I” (1912), a richly colored canvas that sold for $33 million, far above its estimate of $15 million to $25 million. (Final prices include Christie’s commission: 20 percent of the first $100,000 and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect the commissions.) The Klimts weren’t the only blockbusters last night. Early in the evening, Gauguin’s “Man with an Ax” (1891), estimated at $35 million to $45 million, was sold to another anonymous telephone bidder for $40.3 million, a record for the artist. The richly colored canvas of a Tahitian poised in front of his boat has been in the Sultan of Brunei’s family. Although Christie’s executives said Mr.

Lauder did not buy any of the Klimts, the Neue Galerie, with the help of an anonymous “friend” of the museum, was able to purchase Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Street Scene, Berlin.” This colorful canvas of an urban crowd, painted mainly in blues with a prostitute in a bright red dress on the left, was expected to bring $18 million to $25 million. Daniella Luxembourg, a private dealer, bid on behalf of the Neue Galerie, paying $38 million, another record. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The painting is another story of restitution. It found its way to Christie’s only three months after the German government returned it to the heirs of Alfred and Thekla Hess, Jewish collectors in Erfurt, Germany. The painting, which had been hanging in Brücke Museum in Berlin, is one of only 11 street scenes painted by Kirchner and is considered one of his finest, having been painted at the height of his career.

The sale lost one of its potential stars earlier yesterday when Christie’s announced that it was reluctantly withdrawing an important Picasso portrait, “Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto.” The decision, made by the auction house and the seller, the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, came just a day after a federal judge dismissed a claim filed by Julius H. Schoeps, a Jewish banker’s heir, who contends that the soulful Blue Period painting was sold under duress by his great-uncle, a banker in Nazi Germany. The 1903 painting, estimated at $40 million to $60 million, was to be sold on behalf of Mr. Lloyd Webber’s foundation, which benefits theaters and actors. Christie’s said the sale was delayed because Mr. Schoeps’s lawyers had informed them that they would file another suit in a state court. The loss of the Picasso did not hurt the evening. As crowds milled around Christie’s after the sale, trying to make sense of it all, Andrew Fabricant, a Manhattan dealer, perhaps best echoed the feeling of the audience. “I’m flabbergasted,” he said.

“Not only did so much money change hands, but this sale it going to change the whole landscape when it comes to prices for postwar art.” A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Klimts Spark Bidding as $496 Million Sale Shatters Record. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Gustav Klimt - 135 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy Gustav Klimt Overview Works Articles Shows Auction Results Related Artists Biography Gustav Klimt is best known for his opulently gilded art nouveau portraits of women that epitomize fin-de-siècle Vienna. His Symbolist pastiches of pale nudes, allegorical gardens and erotic content served as the basis for many American psychedelic poster designs in the 1960s. Early in his career, Klimt was supported generously by the Viennese community, and received several commissions for murals in theaters and the Museum Kunsthistorisches. Early narrative paintings depicted heavy subjects such as anxiety, doubt, sexuality, and death, but in later years, he turned toward landscape painting, exploring light and abstract patterns of nature.

His most famous paintings are The Kiss (1907) and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907), which sold for a record auction price of more than 100 million dollars in 2006. Austrian, 1862–1918, Baumgarten, Austria, based in Vienna, Austria

Question: Who painted "Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer", which sold at auction for $US135 million in 2006?
Answer: Gustav Klimt