# Portrait of a Lady > Gustav Klimt - 1916-1917 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/gustav-klimt/klimt-portrait-of-a-lady/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-26 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Gustav Klimt - **Date:** 1916-1917 - **Medium:** Oil on canvas, painted over an earlier portrait by the same artist - **Dimensions:** 68 x 55 cm, as given by the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi. Other figures are in circulation and do not agree: 60 x 55 cm in the Italian and English Wikipedia entries, about 55 x 65 cm in the museum estimate quoted by news agencies in January 2020, and 40 x 60 cm in the Austrian agency report of December 2019. - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Austrian, early twentieth century - **Current location:** Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza, Italy - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary A late Klimt portrait of an unidentified young woman, bought by the Piacenza collector Giuseppe Ricci Oddi in 1925 and hung in his gallery from 1931. In 1996 a schoolgirl working on her final-year project noticed that it was the same face as a Klimt portrait lost since 1917, and radiography confirmed that Klimt had painted this picture on top of that one. It is the only canvas by him known to hold two of his portraits.Ten months after that discovery, the BBC reports, on 22 February 1997, the picture vanished from the gallery during preparations for an exhibition. The gallery states that the means were never established. On 10 December 2019 gardeners cutting ivy off the gallery's outside wall opened a small unlocked hatch and found the canvas in a plastic bag. Experts appointed by the Piacenza prosecutor's office announced on 17 January 2020 that it was the stolen painting.Two men afterwards told the Piacenza newspaper Liberta that they had taken it and returned it. Prosecutors sought no trial: the deadline for prosecuting the theft had passed, and the investigation into three named people was archived by a judge on 18 November 2021 without any finding against them. Nobody has been held responsible for either the taking or the return. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1910-1916** Gustav Klimt, Vienna `[documented]` (origin) The support carried a finished portrait of a young girl, known as the Backfisch, which Klimt exhibited and which was reproduced in a German magazine. The Ricci Oddi gallery dates it to about 1910. The commentary by Johannes Dobai of 1967, as reprinted in the Italian edition of the Klimt catalogue, records the work as known only through an illustration in Velhagen und Klasings Monatshefte for 1917 to 1918, page 32, with dimensions and whereabouts unknown, and a dating to 1912 by Franz Servaes. - **1916-1917** Gustav Klimt, Vienna `[documented]` (origin) Klimt repainted the canvas, preserving the face and the background of the earlier picture and altering the dress and the hair, producing the portrait now visible. The gallery states that this transformation has no equal elsewhere in his work. - **1917-1925** Unknown; by 1925 in the stock of Luigi Scopinich, Milan `[unknown]` (gap) No source located for this record documents how the picture left Vienna or how it entered the Milanese trade. Klimt died in February 1918. The chain between the studio and the dealer is unrecorded here and is left as a gap rather than bridged. - **1925-1931** Giuseppe Ricci Oddi, Piacenza `[documented]` (purchase) Bought in 1925 from the Milanese dealer Luigi Scopinich. No price is published in the sources consulted. The gallery states that it was first installed in the billiard room of the family palazzo. Ricci Oddi, born in Piacenza in 1869, had begun collecting in 1897 and had been seeking premises for a public gallery since 1913. - **1931-1997** Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza `[documented]` (institutional) Moved into the gallery in 1931, into the room devoted to foreign artists. The gallery, built at the founder's expense to designs by Giulio Ulisse Arata between 1924 and 1931 on the site of the former convent of San Siro, opened to the public on 11 October 1931. The picture hung there without incident until 1996, when the underlying portrait was identified. - **1997-02-22-2019-12-10** Whereabouts unknown `[unknown]` (theft) The gallery states that the picture disappeared on 22 February 1997 during preparations for an exhibition, by means the investigations never succeeded in clarifying. Two men later told the Piacenza newspaper Liberta that they had taken it, and their lawyer told the Guardian that they said they had returned it four years before the recovery and had stored it in a house whose address they gave to police. No court has established where it was or who held it. The period is recorded as unknown. - **2019-12-10-present** Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza `[documented]` (recovery) Recovered on 10 December 2019 from a small unlocked recess in the gallery's external wall and held at the Bank of Italy in Piacenza during the examination. Authenticated as the stolen picture by experts appointed by the Piacenza prosecutor's office on 17 January 2020. Back on public view at the gallery from 28 November 2020, lent to the Museo di Roma from October 2021 to March 2022 and to the My Art Museum in Seoul from December 2025 to March 2026, and returned to Piacenza on 4 April 2026. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **** , - This picture has never been sold at auction. It was bought privately from a dealer in 1925 and has been in one collection ever since. No price is published for that purchase. The figure below is for a different painting by the same artist from the same years, given as the market cohort and not as a value for this object. - **2023-06-27** Sotheby's, Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction, London - Estimate: In excess of GBP 65 m, as reported in the pre-sale coverage - Hammer: GBP 74 m - With premium: GBP 85.3 m with buyer's premium - Klimt's Dame mit Faecher, his last portrait, of 1917 to 1918. Al Jazeera reported the hammer as GBP 74 m, about USD 94.35 m, and the total with premium as GBP 85.3 m, about USD 108.4 m, and quoted Sotheby's saying that after a ten-minute bidding battle between four clients on the phones and in the room the painting set a new auction record for a work of art in Europe and for Klimt, beating Giacometti's Walking Man I at GBP 65 m with premium in 2010. Dollar figures are conversions at the date of sale and are derived. This is a comparable late portrait, not this object. ## Open questions - Who is the sitter? Neither the holding gallery nor the compiler of the Taschen catalogue of Klimt's paintings can name her. The one proposal in print, Consuela Huber, is undercut in the same report that raises it by the absence of the beauty spot from surviving photographs of her. - How did the picture travel from Klimt's studio in Vienna to the stock of the Milanese dealer Luigi Scopinich by 1925, and what did Giuseppe Ricci Oddi pay for it? Neither is documented in any source located for this record. - How did the canvas leave the building on 22 February 1997? The gallery states the means were never established. Published accounts variously describe a fishing line through a skylight, an entry through the main door and a frame found on the roof, while the report of the 2020 examination describes marks matching a frame left on the ground. - Where was the painting between 1997 and 2019? The prosecutor's experts reported in January 2020 that nothing had been established about how long it had lain in the cavity, and noted that its condition was not consistent with twenty-two years in optimal conditions. The men who wrote to Liberta said through their lawyer that it had not been in the cavity all that time. - Was the loss ever insured, and if so what became of any payment once the picture was recovered? The gallery's vice president said in December 2019 that the documents from twenty-two years earlier would need to be checked, and no answer has been published since. - What became of the partial fingerprint recovered from the empty frame in 1997 and re-tested with newer methods from 2014? No source located for this record states whether it was ever matched, and the file was archived in November 2021 without any finding. - What are the picture's true dimensions? Four different measurements are in print, including the holding gallery's own 68 by 55 centimetres. A published measurement taken during the 2020 examination would settle it. ## Sources - [1] Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi, 'Gustav Klimt: Ritratto di signora', the holding institution's own page on the object. Gives the dimensions as 68 x 55 cm, the 1925 purchase from Luigi Scopinich, the move into the gallery in 1931, the under-painting, Claudia Maga, the theft of 22 February 1997 by means never clarified, and the recovery of 10 December 2019. - [2] Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi, 'La storia della Galleria'. Giuseppe Ricci Oddi 1869-1937, the first purchases of 1897, the search for premises from 1913, the building by Giulio Ulisse Arata 1924-1931 on the San Siro convent site, the overhead natural lighting urged by the founder, the opening of 11 October 1931 and the Medardo Rosso friendship. - [3] IlPiacenza, Emanuela Gatti, 'Il Klimt e autentico ed e in discrete condizioni. Dov'e stato per ventidue anni?', 17 January 2020. The fullest account of the authentication: the three experts appointed by Ornella Chicca, the named officials, the evidence item by item, the condition finding and the city's statement naming the finder. - [4] The Art Newspaper, 'Stolen Klimt found hidden in a wall will take a month to authenticate, officials say', 12 December 2019. The gardener, the metal plate, the cavity, the fishing line and the frame on the roof, and Laura Bonfanti on condition and insurance. - [5] The Art Newspaper, 'Suspect list in stolen Klimt saga grows', 19 February 2020. The questioning of the former director's widow, the Fugazza diary reported by the BBC in 2016, the January 2020 authentication and the 60 million euro valuation. - [6] Artnet News, Naomi Rea, 'In a Twist, Two Serial Art Thieves Confess to Having Hidden Klimt's Portrait of a Lady Inside a Wall So That It Might Be Recovered', 21 January 2020. The letter to Liberta, the lawyer Guido Gulieri, the claimed return four years earlier, the expiry of the limitation period and the separate burglary sentences. Reached through the in-app browser after a 403 on direct fetch. - [7] Artnet News, Sarah Cascone, 'Confessed Thief in 1997 Gustav Klimt Heist Claims Canvas Will Soon Be Returned', 9 December 2016. Summarises the BBC interview, the Ventimiglia forgery of April 1997, Claudia Maga's discovery, the 2014 reopening and Colonel Luca Pietranera. Reached through the in-app browser. - [8] The Guardian, Lizzy Davies, 'Gustav Klimt theft case reopens in Italy 17 years on', 16 March 2014. The most careful account of what the police did and did not know: main entrance or skylight, an empty frame, a partial fingerprint. Reached through the in-app browser. - [9] Die Presse, APA report, 'Viele Raetsel um wiedergefundenes Klimt-Portraet in Italien', 11 December 2019. Tobias G. Natter on the sitter and on the embarrassment to art history, Dario Gallinaro and Massimo Ferrari on the recovery, the alarm not working, the 2015 ransom demand, the unsellability of the picture and a dimension of 40 x 60 cm. Reached through the in-app browser. - [10] Corriere della Sera, 'Piacenza, il Klimt e l'incredibile storia del quadro nascosto sotto la tela, scoperta da una studentessa 18enne', 11 December 2019. Claudia Maga's own account of the 1996 discovery in her own words, and General Roberto Riccardi on the under-painting as an almost certain signature. Reached through the in-app browser. - [11] ANSA, 'E autentico il quadro di Klimt ritrovato a Piacenza', 17 January 2020. The announcement at a press conference in Piacenza and the statement by the mayor Patrizia Barbieri and the culture councillor Jonathan Papamarenghi. - [12] Liberta, 'Klimt, restano i misteri. Chiesta l'archiviazione per i tre indagati', 3 March 2021. The prosecutor's request to archive the case against three people investigated for receiving stolen goods and theft, the role of the judge, and the niche in the external wall. Reached through the in-app browser. - [13] ANSA, 'Klimt sparito e ritrovato, archiviata l'inchiesta a Piacenza', 18 November 2021. The judge Luca Milani, the request by the prosecutor Ornella Chicca, the three people named with their offences and, for two of them, their deaths, and the picture then hanging in the Rome exhibition. - [14] ARTnews, 'Italian Prosecutors to Drop Charges in Stolen Klimt Painting Investigation'. Prosecutors dropping charges against three suspects, a judge to rule on that decision, and the expectation that the case would remain cold. Retrieved by plain GET after a 307 redirect blocked the standard fetch. - [15] Center for Art Law, 'Klimt in the Wall: An Account of Return'. The legal analysis: the police theory of the fishing line and skylight, the Italian limitation period of six years for theft extendable to nine, the position of the confession outside any prosecution window, and the unresolved insurance question. - [16] Museo di Roma, 'Klimt. La Secessione e l'Italia', exhibition page. Palazzo Braschi, 27 October 2021 to 27 March 2022, curated by Franz Smola of the Belvedere, Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli and Sandra Tretter of the Klimt Foundation, more than two hundred works, and the Ricci Oddi Ritratto di signora described as stolen in 1997 and recovered in 2019. - [17] The Korea Herald, 'Long-lost Gustav Klimt Christmas gift to travel to Seoul for first time'. The Miracle of Klimt and Other Treasures From Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi at My Art Museum, Gangnam, 19 December 2025 to 22 March 2026, about seventy works, and the first showing of the picture outside Italy since the recovery. - [18] Piacenzasera, 'Il ritorno a casa della Signora del Klimt: alla Ricci Oddi dal 4 aprile', April 2026. The return from Seoul on 4 April 2026, the director Lucia Pini quoted, and the new arrangement from 28 April 2026. - [19] Finestre sull'Arte, 'Piacenza, Klimt's Portrait of a Lady is back at the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art'. Confirms the return on 4 April 2026 from the My Art Museum in Seoul, the Lissoni and Partners refurbishment and the reopening on 28 April 2026. - [20] Patrimonio culturale, Regione Emilia-Romagna, 'Nuova vita per la Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi di Piacenza', 2026. The refurbishment by Lissoni and Partners from spring 2025, more than a thousand square metres and twenty-two rooms, the freeing of Arata's design from later alterations, the free-admission period from 28 April to 3 May 2026, Massimo Toscani and Lucia Pini. - [21] Al Jazeera, 'Klimt painting sets European record with $108m price tag', 28 June 2023. Dame mit Faecher at Sotheby's London: hammer GBP 74 m, about USD 94.35 m; GBP 85.3 m with buyer's premium, about USD 108.4 m; the previous European record of GBP 65 m for Giacometti's Walking Man I in 2010; and the Sotheby's statement. - [22] Interpol, 'Stolen Works of Art Database'. Described as the only database at international level with certified police information on stolen and missing objects of art, with almost 57,000 items, searchable only by authorised users through an application form. - [23] Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, public database portal. The Leonardo database of unlawfully removed cultural property and the command's history and structure. Checked for an entry on this picture on 26 September 2026. - [24] FBI, National Stolen Art File. Searched on 26 September 2026 for Gustav Klimt through the file's own search and through a domain-scoped web search after the site's own search returned a Cloudflare challenge to a direct fetch; no entry for the artist or this picture was returned. - [25] TERTIARY. Wikipedia (Italian), 'Ritratto di signora (Klimt)', read as wikitext through the MediaWiki API. Carries the Dobai 1967 commentary with the Velhagen und Klasings Monatshefte citation and the Servaes dating, the Ventimiglia forgery addressed to Bettino Craxi, the three gardeners and the hatch, and the 2021 archiving. Flagged for replacement with the Novotny and Dobai catalogue itself and with the Piacenza court file. - [26] TERTIARY. Wikipedia (English), 'Portrait of a Lady (Klimt)'. Gives dimensions of 60 x 55 cm and the claim that the skylight beside which the frame was found was too small for the painting to pass through, which the BBC reports from the investigating carabiniere Sgt Maj Salvatore Cavallaro at source 29. Flagged for replacement. - [27] TERTIARY. Wikipedia (English), 'Gustav Klimt', for the biography, the Kunstgewerbeschule and Kuenstlercompagnie, the Secession presidency of 1897, the University of Vienna ceiling paintings and their destruction at Schloss Immendorf in 1945, the stroke of 11 January 1918 and the death of 6 February 1918, and the text on a non-existent self-portrait. Flagged for replacement with a scholarly edition of Klimt's writings and with the Belvedere's catalogue. - [28] Wikimedia Commons API, per-file query of imageinfo extmetadata. Every plate proposed for this record was checked individually on 26 September 2026 against the LicenseShortName field, and two candidate files were dropped on the result. - [29] BBC News, Max Paradiso, 'The mystery of the stolen Klimt', 8 December 2016. Source for the interval of ten months between Claudia Maga's discovery and the theft, and for the investigating carabiniere Sgt Maj Salvatore Cavallaro's finding on the roof that the frame did not fit through the skylight beside it. Retrieved 26 September 2026. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.