2023-06-28 10:43:44
The work of the famous Austrian painter was auctioned on Tuesday June 27 in London for 74 million pounds, dethroning the previous European record.
On a golden yellow backdrop, an unknown dark-haired woman, fan in hand. The “Lady with a Fan”, a painting by the most famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, was sold on Tuesday June 27 in London for 74 million pounds, or more than 86 million euros. Painted in 1917, a year before the artist’s death, the work beats the previous European record held since February 2010 by a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, “Walking Man I”, which was sold at the era for 65 million pounds.
The house Sotheby’s, organizer of the sale, had presented the “Lady with a fan” as “not only the star of the summer auction season in London, but also one of the most beautiful and precious ever offered in Europe” . It indicated that it could sell for 65 million pounds, well below the price finally obtained under the hammer, after ten minutes of bidding and breathtaking suspense in the last moments when two potential buyers were still in the running. Once the costs inherent in the sale have been added, the winner, whose identity has not been revealed, will have to pay 85.3 million pounds (nearly 99 million euros).
The canvas had been in a private collection since 1994, according to information given by Sotheby’s. It had once belonged to the Viennese industrialist Erwin Bohler, then to his brother, and to the widow of the latter until the 1940s. Much later, in the years 1988, it also belonged to the businessman and American patron Wendell Cherry. “Breathing freedom and spontaneity, (the portrait) reflects Klimt’s joy in painting it and celebrating beauty in its purest form,” according to the auction house. On the canvas, we find patterns and colors that make the particularity of the artist’s paintings, such as blue and green birds, flowers.
Last year, during an auction at Christie’s in New York of the art collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, a painting by Gustav Klimt, “The Birch Forest” had sold for 104.5 million dollars at Christie’s in New York.
Among other notable sales in Europe, Claude Monet’s “The Water Lilies” sold for £40.9 million at Christie’s in London in June 2008, while René Magritte’s “The Empire of Lights” sold to £59.4 million at Sotheby’s in March 2022.
#painting #Lady #fan #Gustav #Klimt #sold #million #euros #Liberation