(CNN) — A portrait of Gustav Klimt that had not been seen in nearly a century sold for $32 million, the lowest of its pre-auction estimate.
The “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser”, believed to be one of the last works of the Austrian painter, generated great expectations in the art world, but ended up selling for the lowest amount of its valuation, which ranged between 30 and 50 million euros (between US$32 and US$53.4 million).
Bidding began at 28 million euros and the work reached a final price of 30 million. This figure does not include auction house fees.
The sale price was less than half that achieved by another Klimt painting – “Dame mit Fächer” (Lady with a Fan) – in London last year. Klimt’s final portrait became the most expensive work of art ever sold at a European auction when it sold for 85.3 million pounds ($108.4 million).
The “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser” was long considered lost, according to the Viennese auction house im Kinsky. However, it was recently revealed that it had been the private property of an Austrian citizen.
“The rediscovery of this portrait, one of the most beautiful from Klimt’s last creative period, is quite a sensation,” the auction house declared in a statement published on its website before its sale this Wednesday afternoon.
The intensely vivid and colorful piece had been documented in catalogs of the artist’s work, but experts had only seen it in a black and white photo.
It is known that the model belonged to a wealthy Austrian Jewish family that was then part of the upper class of Viennese society, where Klimt found his patrons and clients. However, her identity is not entirely certain.
“Portrait of Fräulein Lieser” was auctioned at the im Kinsky auction house in Vienna on April 24. (Credit: Roland Schlager/APA/AFP via Getty Images)
The brothers Adolf and Justus Lieser were important industrialists of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the catalogs of Klimt’s works it is stated that Adolf commissioned the artist to paint his teenage daughter Margarethe Constance. However, new investigations by the auction house suggest that Justus’ wife, Lilly, hired him to paint one of her two daughters.
The statement on the auction house’s website reveals that the model – whoever she was – visited Klimt’s studio nine times in April and May 1917. She carried out at least 25 preliminary studies and most likely began the painting in May of that year.
“The painter chose a three-quarter portrait for his representation and shows the young woman in a strictly frontal pose, near the foreground, on a red and undefined background. A cape richly decorated with flowers surrounds her shoulders,” explains the house of auctions.
He adds: “The painting’s intense colors and the shift toward loose, open brushstrokes show Klimt at the height of his late period.”
When the artist died after a stroke the following February, the painting was still in his studio, with some small parts unfinished. It was given to the Lieser family.
Its exact fate after 1925 is “unclear,” according to the auction house.
“What is known is that it was acquired by a legal predecessor of the consignor in the 1960s and came to the current owner through three successive inheritances,” the statement said.
The painting was to be sold on behalf of its Austrian owners, who have not been named, along with the legal successors of “Adolf and Henriette Lieser on the basis of an agreement in accordance with the 1998 Washington Principles,” the art house said. auctions.
Established in 1998, the Washington Principles tasked participating nations with returning works of art confiscated by the Nazis to their rightful owners.
Claudia Mörth-Gasser, modern art specialist at im Kinsky, explained the situation in an email to CNN.
He said the auctioneer checked the history and provenance of the painting “in every way possible in Austria”, adding: “We checked all the archives and found no evidence that the painting was exported outside of Austria, confiscated or looted.”
But, in the same way, he added: “We have no evidence that the painting was never looted in the period between 1938 and 1945.”
And this is why “we have reached an agreement between the current owner and all descendants of the Lieser family in accordance with the ‘Washington Principles,'” he said.
Klimt’s portraits of women “are rarely offered at auction,” the press release notes. He continues: “A painting of such rarity, artistic significance and value has not been available on the art market in Central Europe for decades.”
