Gustav Klimt Painting Auctioned for 30 Million Euros: Details Revealed

Again, again: Gustav Klimt’s long-lost painting Photo of Miss Lieser soon by a Hong Kong collector, for a cool 37 million euros. It wasn’t a bargain, you say, but the auction house was still disappointed. Because Klimt’s work is so popular, management had hoped for 50 or even 70 million euros, he said. the standard. “But the economic reality is not entirely rosy,” said the same newspaper.

The last time Photo of Miss Lieser appeared publicly in 1925, when a black and white photograph of the work appeared as it was to be exhibited in the Neue Galerie. But the work was never shown there, according to an archived document. It shows a list of works on display – the name “Lieser” is reversed. It is not clear where the work was during the Nazi regime, but it is certain that it ended up in a private collection in Vienna in the 1960s. According to Im Kinsky auction house, the gaps in the original partially explain why there were only three bids in the end.

No signature

The work itself has not yet revealed all its secrets. Because who is the young woman posing for Klimt with a scarf full of flowers? Art historians assume that the woman is the daughter or niece of Adolf Lieser, a wealthy Jewish businessman dressed in jute and hemp. The most likely scenario is that she is either Margarethe Constanze Lieser, who visited the studio several times. But the hazel brown eyes of the picture would fit better with the eyes of Helene Lieser, the first Austrian woman to receive a doctorate in Austria.

Klimt died in early 1918 and never finished the painting. There is no signature from him either. That did not dampen the enthusiasm of art expert Claudia Mörth-Gasser, who was allowed to present the work to the public at the auction. “This painting shows how Klimt painted today at the end of his life – his incredible freedom of movement, the colors exploding from the canvas. Incredibly beautiful.”

Surprisingly: although there is no evidence that the painting was stolen, the money is nevertheless shared by the heirs of the original Jewish owners.