‘Lost’ Klimt masterpiece sells for £26m after mysterious recovery

Painting ‘believed lost for approximately 100 years’

The “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser”, a Gustav Klimt portrait that mysteriously resurfaced after being lost for nearly 100 years, has been auctioned in Vienna for £26m.

The painting by the iconic Austrian artist was auctioned on 24 April, according to the im Kinsky auction house website.

The auction started with an opening bid of £23m ($29m) and the final sale price on Wednesday fell within the projected range of £25m-£42m ($32-$53m), marking the lower end of expectations.

The identity of the buyer was not disclosed.

The auction house said: “The rediscovery of this portrait, one of the most beautiful of Klimt’s last creative period, is a sensation. As a key figure of Viennese Art Nouveau, Gustav Klimt epitomises fin de siècle Austrian Modernism more than any other artist.”

“His work, particularly his portraits of successful women from the upper middle class at the turn of the century, enjoy the highest recognition worldwide. Klimt’s paintings rank in the top echelons of the international art market.

“His portraits of women are seldom offered at auctions. A painting of such rarity, artistic significance, and value has not been available on the art market in Central Europe for decades. This also applies to Austria, where no work of art of even approximate importance has been available,” it added.

The artwork was put up for auction by the present proprietors – private Austrian citizens whose identities remained undisclosed – alongside the lawful successors of Adolf and Henriette Lieser, with speculation suggesting one of them may have commissioned the piece.

The exact member from the Lieser lineage who served as the muse for the painting remains ambiguous to date.

According to the auction house, when the painter died of a stroke on 6 February 1918, he left the painting – with small parts unfinished – in his studio. “After Klimt’s death, the painting was given to the family who had commissioned it.”

The only known photograph of the painting is held in the archives of the Austrian National Library, which was likely taken in 1925 in connection with the Klimt exhibition by Otto Kallir-Nirenstein in the Neue Galerie, Vienna, im Kinsky states.

The exact fate of the painting after 1925 is unclear.

A portrait of a young woman by Gustav Klimt that was long believed to be lost has been sold at an auction in Vienna for 30 million euros ($32 million). The Austrian modernist artist started work on the “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser” in 1917, the year before he died, and it is one of his last works (Associated Press)

The Jewish family departed Austria post-1930 and suffered substantial losses of their belongings.

The events surrounding the painting’s whereabouts between 1925 and the 1960s, spanning the era of the Nazi regime’s rule over Austria following its annexation in 1938, remain uncertain.

The auction house maintains there is no concrete evidence of the painting being seized during that period, yet there’s also no definitive proof of its non-confiscation. It eventually came into the possession of the current owners through a series of three successive inheritances, im Kinsky mentioned.

Given the prevailing uncertainty, the present owners and the heirs of the Lieser family formulated an agreement to proceed with the sale in accordance with the Washington Principles. Drafted in 1998, these principles aim to facilitate the resolution of matters concerning the restitution of art confiscated during the Nazi era.