Klimt’s supposed lost painting auctioned, proceeds shared with Jewish owners

The prestigious Viennese auction house Im Kinsky has auctioned a recently unearthed painting by Gustav Klimt for 30 million euros. Not a bargain, but also not a record for the beloved artist.

Once, again: Gustav Klimt’s long-lost painting Portrait of Miss Lieser will soon hang with a Hong Kong collector, for a cool 37 million euros. Not a bargain, you say, but the auction house was still disappointed. Since Klimt’s work is so popular, the management had hoped for 50 or even 70 million euros, he said. der Standard. “But the economic reality is not exactly rosy,” said the same newspaper.

The last time it Portrait of Miss Lieser appeared in public in 1925, when a black and white photo of the work surfaced because it was to be exhibited in the Neue Galerie. But the work was never shown there, according to an archive document. It shows a list of the works on display – the name “Lieser” is crossed out. It is unclear 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 auction house Im Kinsky, the gaps in the provenance partly 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 who poses for Klimt with a scarf full of flowers? Art historians assume that the woman is a daughter or niece of Adolf Lieser, a wealthy Jewish industrialist in jute and hemp textiles. The most likely scenario is that she is either Margarethe Constanze Lieser, who visited the studio several times. But the hazelnut brown eyes of the portrait would best match those of Helene Lieser, the first Austrian woman to obtain a doctorate in Austria.

Klimt died in early 1918 and did not complete the portrait. There is also no signature from him. 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 modern Klimt painted at the end of his life – his incredible freedom of movement, the colors that burst from the canvas. Breathtakingly beautiful.”

Remarkable: although there is no evidence that the portrait was stolen, the proceeds are nevertheless shared with the heirs of the original Jewish owners.