A rare Gustav Klimt portrait with a remarkable survival story just set auction records. Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” sold for $236.4 million after a 20-minute bidding war at Sotheby’s in New York on Tuesday — setting a new record as the second most expensive piece of modern art ever sold at auction.
The 6-foot-tall portrait was created between 1914 and 1916, and its history is just as extraordinary as its price tag.
A Gustav Klimt painting sold for a record-breaking $236.4 million on Tuesday night, making it the most expensive piece of modern art ever sold at auction. pic.twitter.com/BiM8vYofuY
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 19, 2025
History behind the piece
When Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the Lederer family’s extensive art collection was looted, but their portraits were left behind, deemed “too Jewish” to be worth stealing, according to the National Gallery of Canada.
Elisabeth Lederer survived by claiming that Klimt, who wasn’t Jewish, was her father.
With assistance from her former brother-in-law, a high-ranking Nazi official, she obtained documents claiming she was descended from the artist. It was a lie that protected her and allowed her to stay in Vienna until her death in 1944.
