A painting by Gustav Klimt, instrumental in saving its Jewish subject’s life during the Holocaust, was sold for $236.4 million US, including fees, setting a new record for a modern art piece. The portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York City after a 20-minute bidding war, also became the most expensive artwork ever sold by the fine art broker. Notably, a fully functional solid gold toilet stole the show, fetching $12.1 million.
This Klimt masterpiece is one of only two full-length portraits by the Austrian artist that survived the Second World War and are privately owned. Painted over three years from 1914 to 1916, it features the daughter of a prominent Viennese family draped in an East Asian emperor’s cloak. Safeguarded from a fire that destroyed other Klimt paintings in an Austrian castle, this vibrant portrait showcases the opulent lifestyle of the Lederer family before Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938.
During the Nazi looting of the Lederer art collection, only the family portraits, including Elisabeth Lederer’s, were spared as they were deemed “too Jewish” to be of value. Elisabeth Lederer, in a bid to protect herself, falsely claimed that Klimt, who was non-Jewish and deceased before the war, was her father. Her connection to the artist, evident in the detailed portrait, aided her in persuading the Nazis to issue a document affirming her as Klimt’s descendant.
Previously part of billionaire Leonard A. Lauder’s collection, the portrait’s buyer remains undisclosed by Sotheby’s. This sale surpassed the previous record set by an Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe, which fetched $195 million in 2022.
In the same auction, a satirical solid gold toilet, weighing 101 kilograms and crafted by Maurizio Cattelan, known for his provocative art, was sold for $12.1 million. Titled “America,” the toilet humorously critiques extreme wealth, with Cattelan emphasizing the universal nature of bodily functions irrespective of one’s affluence. Sotheby’s described the piece as a sharp reflection on the intersection of artistic creation and monetary value.
This particular golden toilet, owned by an anonymous collector, is not Cattelan’s only creation of its kind. Another similar piece was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in 2016 and famously offered to then-President Donald Trump for loaning when he requested a Van Gogh painting. Subsequently, the toilet was stolen from display at England’s Blenheim Palace, with the culprits convicted, although the whereabouts of the toilet remain unknown, likely having been dismantled and melted down. “America” was showcased at Sotheby’s New York headquarters before the auction.