A painting of mysterious provenance by Gustav Klimt is going up for auction in Vienna
The painting “Portrait of Mademoiselle Lesser” by the famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, which has an estimated price of between 30 and 50 million euros ($32 and 53.4 million), was put up for auction on Wednesday in… Vienna, despite the mystery surrounding its source. The head of the modern art department at the M. Kinski Auction House, Claudia Morth Gasser, pointed out that “this auction is historic in more ways than one,” because “a work like it has never been offered for sale in the country they came from. the painter likes.”
The picture that was recovered, without a name, caused a great stir, especially because it was well preserved and remained in the Austrian borders. Since its release in January, those interested have rushed to see it at shows held in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and Hong Kong, before its release in… rup. It was, in fact, displayed in Austria inside a magnificent Baroque palace, surrounded by preliminary sketches by Klimt and other works by contemporary artists such as Egon Schiele, which are also being sold as part of the auction. , which starts at five in the afternoon local time (15:00 GMT).
The unfinished painting, which dates back to 1917, shows a young brunette woman with bright features, wearing a jacket printed with flowers on a red background. The painter died the following year, and the identity of the woman seen in the work is still largely covered in the special media.
Who is this young Austrian woman? bourgeois class The rich woman who visited the workshop of a master painter who loved him nine times? The only thing that is certain is that she came from the Lesser family, a large Jewish family of business people, but was it Helen or Anne, one of the two daughters of Henriette Lesser, the wealthy divorcee who was a pioneer in the issue of women’s empowerment ? Or is it Margarete, the daughter of her brother-in-law Adolf, according to what was said in the first complete catalog of Klimt’s work, which was completed in the 1960s?
The only known photograph of the painting to date, possibly taken in 1925 as part of an exhibition, indicates that the painting was owned by Lily Lesser in that year. The daily newspaper Der Standard, based on letters deposited in an Austrian museum, explains that Lilly gave the picture to one of her employees before her death in 1943. the painting again by a Nazi dealer before it was inherited by his daughter and then his distant. relatives
However, Kinski, who specializes in real estate recovery procedures, believes that this story is only “one of several existing hypotheses. ” After the war, none of Lesser’s three descendants claimed the picture, although they claimed other things. Claudia Morth Gasser explained to Agence France-Presse that her employer received a call from the owners of the picture two years ago to speak to him legally, without mentioning their identity.
M. Kinski has contacted the smallest family that has the rights to the picture, who live in the United States. Some of them traveled to inspect the painting, before signing a contract with the owners that would remove the obstacles preventing its sale. No details have been released about the terms of this friendly agreement, which many experts criticize as being decided too quickly, despite the uncertainty surrounding what happened. for a work of great value.
Monica Mayer, head of the archives at the Belvedere Museum, which houses Klimt’s famous painting “The Kiss”, says: “Until now, we have not been able to get accurate information about her collection, and it is necessary to allow adequate time over for more. in-depth investigation.” The painting was not exhibited in the United States, for fear that it would be brought in by the judge if it was disputed, such as works suspected of being stolen. the eruption.
(AFP)
