Klimt's Final Portrait 'Woman with a Fan' Sold for Europe's Highest Price of 140 Billion Won

One of Two Works Found in Studio After Death
Klimt Piece Fetches Record Auction Price...To Hong Kong Collector

The last portrait by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, "Lady with a Fan," was sold at auction for over 140 billion won, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a European artwork, according to reports by The New York Times (NYT) and others on the 27th (local time).

According to the reports, at a London auction held by the global auction house Sotheby's on the same day, Klimt's "Lady with a Fan" was sold for ?85.3 million (108.4 million dollars, approximately 141.2 billion won).

Gustav Klimt's 'Woman with a Fan' [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

This is the highest price ever paid for an artwork auctioned in Europe. The previous record for the highest auction price in Europe was Alberto Giacometti's "Walking Man" in 2010, which sold for ?65 million. Among paintings, the highest price at a European auction was Claude Monet's "Water Lilies," sold for $80.4 million in 2008. Initially, "Lady with a Fan" was expected to fetch around $80 million, the highest auction price for an artwork in Europe, but the actual auction price exceeded this estimate.

This auction price is also the highest for a Klimt work. The previous record for the highest auction price of a Klimt piece was "Birch Forest," which was once owned by Microsoft (MS) co-founder Paul Allen and sold for $104.5 million at an auction last year. Two other Klimt portraits are also known to have been traded unofficially for over $100 million.

At the auction, three Asian bidders competed for 10 minutes, and Patty Wong, former chairperson of Sotheby's Asia, ultimately won the bid. Wong explained that she purchased the piece on behalf of a collector in Hong Kong.

The artwork auctioned this time is one of two pieces found in Klimt's Vienna studio after his death in 1918. Sotheby's stated that although the painting does not bear Klimt's signature, it is considered his final masterpiece. The piece was exhibited last year at the Belvedere Palace Museum in Austria but has not appeared at auction since 1994.

"Lady with a Fan," a roughly 1-meter square painting, unlike most of Klimt's masterpieces, was not a commissioned work and is one of the few Klimt pieces held in private collections, CNN reported. The work is imbued with Klimt's characteristic rich expression and appears to be heavily influenced by East Asian art, CNN added.

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction worldwide is Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," which was sold in 2017 for $450.3 million (approximately 584.9 billion won).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.