Klimt's 'Portrait of Miss Lieser' fetches $32 million at auction
STORY: The work was long thought to have been lost when in fact it was hanging in a private villa near Vienna for decades, according to the auction house Im Kinsky that put it on display in January before putting it under the hammer. Im Kinsky had estimated its value at 30 million to 50 million euros.
It shows its likely teenage subject in a turquoise dress draped in a flowing floral gown against a red background, her alabaster skin and piercing, pale brown eyes contrasting with her dark, curly hair.
What happened to the painting after Klimt's death in 1918, when it would have been in his studio, remains unclear, particularly what happened after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938 and the country's Jews were persecuted, expropriated and sent to concentration camps.
Margarethe left Austria for Hungary and then Britain but the auction house says the painting verifiably never left Austria. Lilly Lieser stayed in Vienna until she was deported in 1942 and then killed in Auschwitz the following year.
Her daughters returned to Vienna after World War Two to reclaim her assets but the painting was not mentioned in any documents, Im Kinsky said.
"We had very transparent communication right from the start," Claudia Moerth-Gasser said. "A fair and reasonable solution was found, and the buyer of the painting is now the legal owner of the work."
