A painting by Gustav Klimt, which played a role in saving the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust, was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York City for $236.4 million US, including fees. This sale set a new record for the highest price paid for a modern art piece. The painting, known as Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, was the subject of a 20-minute bidding war and became the most expensive artwork ever sold by the fine art broker globally. Another highlight of the auction was a fully functional solid gold toilet that fetched $12.1 million.
The Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer is one of only two full-length portraits by Klimt that are privately owned and survived World War II unscathed. Created between 1914 and 1916, the painting features the daughter of a prominent Vienna family dressed in an East Asian emperor’s cloak. It was fortunately kept separate from other Klimt artworks that were destroyed in a fire at an Austrian castle.
The vibrant portrait showcases the luxurious lifestyle of the Lederer family before Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. The Nazis seized and looted the Lederer art collection, sparing only the family portraits, which were deemed “too Jewish” to be of value for theft. To protect herself, Elisabeth Lederer falsely claimed that Klimt, who was not Jewish and had passed away in 1918, was her father. This fabrication, coupled with the meticulous work Klimt put into her portrait, helped her survive. With assistance from her former brother-in-law, a senior Nazi official, she convinced the Nazis to issue a document stating her descent from Klimt.
The painting was part of a collection owned by Leonard A. Lauder, a billionaire and heir to The Estée Lauder Companies, who passed away earlier this year. The buyer of the portrait remains undisclosed by Sotheby’s. This sale surpassed the previous record set in 2022 by an Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe, which sold for $195 million.
In the same auction, a fully functional solid gold toilet titled “America” by Maurizio Cattelan, known for his provocative art, was sold for $12.1 million US. Weighing 101 kilograms and crafted from 18-karat gold, the toilet satirizes extreme wealth. Cattelan described the piece as a commentary on the equality of human bodily functions regardless of one’s economic status. Sotheby’s referred to the toilet as a critical reflection on the intersection of art and commercial value.
This golden toilet, owned by an unnamed collector, is not the only one created by Cattelan. Another toilet by the artist was famously displayed at the Guggenheim Museum in 2016 and was humorously offered to U.S. President Donald Trump when he sought to borrow a Van Gogh painting. Subsequently, the piece was stolen while on exhibit at Blenheim Palace in England, where it is believed to have been dismantled and melted down by the thieves. The “America” toilet was showcased at Sotheby’s New York headquarters before the auction.
