A painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt at the end of his life was sold for 85.3 million pounds ($108.4 million), making it the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction in Europe.
The Lady and the Fan sold to a buyer at Sotheby’s in London after a 10-minute bidding war from the hammer price of $94.35 million.
The higher final figure includes a fee on the sale price known as the buyer’s premium.
The sale price significantly exceeded the pre-sale estimate of £65m, or $80m.
It also beat the previous European auction record of $104.3m, including buyer’s premium, for Alberto Giacometti’s “The Walking Man” at Sotheby’s in 2010.
Previously, the most expensive painting sold at auction in Europe was Claude Monet’s “Pond of Water Lilies,” which fetched $80.4 million at Christie’s in 2008.
The piece sold Tuesday was the last painting Klimt completed before his death in 1918.
The painting shows a faceless woman against a radiant Chinese-influenced background of dragons and lotus flowers.
It was last sold in 1994 for $11.6 million at an auction in New York.
