Gustav Klimt's last portrait ever painted has sold for £85.3m at Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary Art evening sale in London, making it the most valuable work ever sold at an auction in Europe.
Klimt’s final masterpiece, Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan), executed a year before the artist’s death (1917), exceeded its pre-estimate of £65m, making it a new record for the artist.
The painting, which made its first appearance in 29 years, went under the hammer following a bidding war between four eager bidders. The winning bid went to well-known advisor Patti Wong - former Sotheby’s executive - bidding live from the New Bond Street saleroom for a Hong Kong collector.
Helena Newman, Sotheby’s chairman for Europe and worldwide head of impressionist and modern art, said, "Dame mit Fächer is the last portrait Gustav Klimt created before his untimely death, when still in his artistic prime and producing some of his most accomplished and experimental works.”
She adds, "Many of those works, certainly the portraits for which he is best known, were commissions. This, though, is something completely different - a technical tour de force, full of boundary-pushing experimentation, as well as a heartfelt ode to absolute beauty."
The painting depicts an unknown woman with a kimono slipping off her shoulder. After the sale, Newman says that she is “unsurprised” by the amount of interest from Asian collectors, considering its inclusion of Chinese and Japanese motifs.
Dame mit Fächer is one of the few portraits by Klimt to the owned privately. The painting was last sold in 1994 to an American collector Wendell Cherry when it fetched $11.6m (£9m).
The Austrian-born artist died in 1918 at the age of 55 after suffering complications leading to a stroke. Although he never married, Klimt was known to be a notorious womaniser with a great many lovers and is said to have fathered 14 children from various women.
Main Image: Helena Newman, at the rostrum to sell Gustav Klimt's Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) Photo: courtesy of Sotheby's