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All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork

Fetching $236.4 million, Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer was nearly destroyed in a fire in the 1940s

4 min readNew DelhiNov 19, 2025 11:27 AM IST

Gustav Klimt’s Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) [Photo Credit: Sotheby's]

Believed to be one of the two full-length Gustav Klimt portraits that remain in private hands, the Austrian artist’s Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) fetched $236.4 million, becoming the most expensive work of modern art sold at auction.

The sale that took place on Tuesday evening at Sotheby’s first auction in its new address in New York’s Breuer building made the canvas the second most expensive artwork ever sold at an auction. The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction is Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, which sold in 2017 for $450.3 m in 2017.

Painted in 1914-1916, the six by four feet portrait has as its protagonist Elisabeth Lederer — daughter of Klimt’s most significant patrons Serena and August Lederer — dressed in a white shimmery gown, standing on a carpeted floor against a wisteria backdrop, inhabited by figures in dragon robes. A note on the oil on canvas on the Sotheby’s website states, “Here, Klimt reveals a fully self-possessed young woman, barely twenty years old. True to the sitter’s features, the face nonetheless bears the artist’s subtle touches, such as the tiny lines at either side of the mouth that turn her otherwise emotionless lips upward in an enigmatic smile. Any expression of self-consciousness is absent, though the rendering of her hands betrays restlessness if not a touch of angst. Venerated by the costumed figures who flank her, she is fantastically attired and wears a regal robe. The work’s symbolism through fashion is paramount to its conceptualisation: her clothes project hierarchy and rank, contemporaneity and tradition, individual taste and worldly sophistication. The background’s atmospheric brushwork appears in brushstrokes at once distinct and melding, in ineffable tones of pale blues and greens mottled by passages of peach and rose pink. Every aspect of this painting, from the carpeted floor to the white flower atop her coiffure, from the halo of background figures to the dragon robe adorning her — not to mention the penetrating black of her eyes—was carefully envisioned to seize the viewer’s attention and imagination.”

Gustav Klimt’s Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) [Photo Credit: Sotheby’s]

Born in 1862 in Vienna, at the young age of 14 Klimt got admission into the prestigious Viennese School of Arts and Crafts, where he studied a range of subjects, including fresco painting and mosaic, and spent hours in Vienna’s museums, studying works of masters. Receiving decorative commissions early in his career, the work sold is the second of three portraits that the artist rendered of three generations of Lederer women, and also celebrates the artist’s fascination with Chinese art.

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Looted by the Nazis and nearly destroyed in a fire during World War II, in 1948, the canvas was returned to Lederer’s brother Erich, who sold it in 1983, two years before his death. In 1985, the painting became part of the private art collection of Estée Lauder heirand American art collector Leonard A Lauder, who passed away earlier this year.

The note on the work adds, “Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer strikes a balance between delicacy and authority. The full-length portrait format has its earliest traces in sculpture from antiquity; in the sixteenth century it was used by monarchs throughout Europe, such as Elizabeth I, to assert dominance and their divine right. Such compositions also convey wealth in no uncertain terms. The cost of a full-length portrait and the display of fabulous textiles are a statement of political, cultural and economic power. By the nineteenth century this mode of aristocratic portraiture was adopted by government officials and the wealthy bourgeoisie. To be sure, many members of European high society such as those depicted in Klimt’s 1888 painting of the old Burgtheater could—and did—commission full-length conservative effigies in shades of brown and black or vivacious “swagger” portraits, but very few immortalised themselves in daring modernist form.”

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More