# Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer > Gustav Klimt - 1914-1916 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/gustav-klimt/klimt-portrait-of-elisabeth-lederer/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-10 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Gustav Klimt - **Date:** 1914-1916 - **Medium:** Oil on canvas - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Viennese Modernism (Wiener Moderne), 1897-1918 - **Current location:** Private collection - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary The second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction, and a painting whose price is inseparable from the reason it still exists. Klimt was commissioned in 1914 by August and Serena Lederer, his principal patrons, to paint their twenty-year-old daughter. He worked on it for two years, would not call it finished, and it was reportedly taken off his easel in 1916 by Serena. The Lederers were the only family for whom Klimt painted three generations of women, and after his death in 1918 Serena bought his estate.The collection was impounded at the family's Vienna apartment on 26 November 1938 and seized by the courts a year later. Most of the Lederer Klimts, including the three Faculty Paintings, burned at Schloss Immendorf on 8 May 1945. This canvas was not sent there, because under Nazi rules a portrait of a Jewish sitter was not worth confiscating; it survived because the regime that stole it did not want it. Elisabeth herself survived the deportations in Vienna by petitioning to have Klimt recognised as her father, a fiction her mother swore to from exile, which in 1940 got her reclassified as half-Jewish while her brothers remained full Jews. She died of illness in October 1944.The seizure was terminated on 30 September 1948 and the painting returned to her brother Erich in Geneva. Serge Sabarsky bought it from him by 1983; Leonard Lauder bought it from Sabarsky in December 1985 and kept it for forty years. On 18 November 2025 it came to auction for the first time in its existence, hammering at 205 million dollars and totalling 236,360,000 with fees. It is not the Adele Bloch-Bauer case: there was no sixty-five-year fight with a state museum here, and that difference is precisely what the buyer was paying for. ## 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. - **1914-1916** August and Serena Lederer, Vienna `[documented]` (commission) Commissioned by the sitter's parents in 1914 and acquired by them in 1916. Klimt was paid 35,000 crowns. He did not consider the picture finished; Serena Lederer is reported to have removed it from the studio. - **1916-1938** Lederer collection, Bartensteingasse 8, Vienna `[documented]` (ownership) Hung in the family's principal Vienna residence, photographed there in Serena Lederer's salon around 1930 by Martin Gerlach. August Lederer died on 30 April 1936. The picture left the collection only once in this period, for the Austrian art exhibition at the Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, in 1917, catalogue no. 104. Sotheby's records a possible showing at the Verein der Museumsfreunde, Vienna, in 1936. - **1938-11-26-1939-12-10** Impounded in situ; Zentralstelle fuer Denkmalschutz `[documented]` (seizure) Impounded where it hung at Bartensteingasse 8 on 26 November 1938, eight months after the Anschluss. Serena Lederer had fled to Budapest; the collection was formally confiscated from her in 1940. In the same year the sitter obtained a certificate of descent naming Klimt as her father, which reclassified her as a Mischling of the first degree while her brothers Erich and Fritz remained classified as full Jews. It had no effect on the ownership of the painting. - **1939-12-10-1948-09-30** Seized by the Landesgericht Wien; deposited at Kirchner and Co, Vienna `[documented]` (seizure) Seized by the Vienna regional court and deposited at Kirchner and Co on 10 December 1939. Not sent to Schloss Immendorf with the bulk of the Lederer Klimts, because under the applicable Nazi rules portraits of Jewish sitters were not treated as worth confiscating. That exclusion is why it survived the fire of 8 May 1945. Secondary accounts place it at the Dorotheum by 1948, where it and the Serena Lederer portrait were scheduled for sale; Sotheby's published chain does not record the Dorotheum stage. - **1948-1983** Erich Lederer, Geneva `[documented]` (restitution) Seizure terminated 30 September 1948; restituted in 1948 to Erich Lederer, the sitter's brother, then resident in Geneva. He stopped the Dorotheum sale of the two family portraits and secured their return. No litigation and no adversary museum were involved; this was a court terminating its own seizure. Restitution did not carry a right of export: the Beethoven Frieze was returned to Erich in the same period but held in Austria until he sold it to the state in 1973 at roughly half market value in exchange for Chancellor Kreisky granting export licences for the family's other Klimts. Whether this canvas was covered by that arrangement, or had left Austria earlier, is not established in the sources consulted. Erich died in Geneva on 19 January 1985. - **by 1983-1985-12** Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York `[documented]` (purchase) Acquired from Erich Lederer. Sotheby's records the gallery as having acquired it by 1983. Price undisclosed. Sabarsky (1912-1996) was a Vienna-born dealer who fled the Nazis in 1938 and became the principal American dealer in Austrian modernism; he later planned the Neue Galerie with Ronald Lauder. - **1985-12-2025-11-18** Leonard A. Lauder, New York `[documented]` (purchase) Acquired from the Serge Sabarsky Gallery in December 1985 for an undisclosed sum. Hung in his Fifth Avenue apartment. Lent anonymously to Klimt's Women at the Belvedere, Vienna, 2000-01; to Neue Galerie New York exhibitions including Klimt and the Women of Vienna's Golden Age, 2016-17; and on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, from 2017 until the sale. Lauder died on 14 June 2025, aged ninety-two. - **2025-11-18-present** Private collection `[documented]` (purchase) Bought at Sotheby's New York, lot 8 of the Leonard A. Lauder, Collector evening auction, by an undisclosed telephone bidder represented by Sotheby's vice chairman Julian Dawes. The buyer has not been identified publicly. Proceeds went to the Lauder trust. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **2025-11-18** Sotheby's, Leonard A. Lauder, Collector | Evening Auction, New York (Breuer building), lot 8, lot 8 - Estimate: Published as Estimate Upon Request; briefed to the press in the region of USD 150 m - Hammer: USD 205,000,000 - With premium: USD 236,360,000 with buyer's premium - First appearance at auction in the painting's existence. The lot carried both of Sotheby's disclosure symbols, guaranteed property and an irrevocable bid; neither the guarantee level nor the identity of the irrevocable bidder is disclosed. Bidding was opened at USD 130 m by Oliver Barker and ran about twenty minutes, resolving into a contest between two telephone bidders held by David Galperin and Julian Dawes; Dawes's client won. Most coverage reports only one figure and rounds it differently: Sotheby's and ARTnews give USD 236.4 m, The Art Newspaper and The Value give USD 236.3 m. Both are the same 236,360,000. Records set: most expensive work of modern art at auction; second most expensive work of art of any kind at auction, behind the Leonardo Salvator Mundi at USD 450.3 m in 2017; most valuable work Sotheby's has sold. It roughly doubled Klimt's previous auction record of GBP 85.3 m with fees, about USD 108.4 m, for Lady with a Fan at Sotheby's London in June 2023, a figure Sotheby's own release rounds to USD 108.8 m. The twenty-four-lot evening sale was a white glove at USD 456.2 m hammer and USD 527.4 m with fees; Sotheby's puts the Lauder collection total at USD 531.3 m across two sessions. The total is checkable against the house's own fee schedule and it lands exactly. Sotheby's New York buyer's premium from 17 February 2025 was 27 per cent to USD 1 m, 22 per cent from USD 1 m to USD 8 m and 15 per cent above, and it was still in force in November: 27 per cent of the first USD 1,000,000 is USD 270,000, 22 per cent of the next USD 7,000,000 is USD 1,540,000 and 15 per cent of the remaining USD 197,000,000 is USD 29,550,000, which is USD 31,360,000 of fees and USD 236,360,000 all in. The arithmetic is DERIVED; both the hammer and the total are published. It settles a question the round number invites, which is whether the USD 205,000,000 hammer had itself been rounded by the press. It had not. ## Open questions - Was this painting among the Lederer Klimts whose Austrian export licences were granted under the 1973 arrangement in which Erich Lederer sold the Beethoven Frieze to the state at roughly half market value? Erich was restituted the portrait in 1948 and was resident in Geneva; no source consulted states when or under what permission the canvas left Austria. - What did the Serge Sabarsky Gallery pay Erich Lederer in or before 1983, and what did Leonard Lauder pay Sabarsky in December 1985? Both prices are undisclosed. Sotheby's provenance gives only the dates. - Who bought the painting on 18 November 2025? The buyer was an undisclosed telephone bidder represented by Julian Dawes. Nothing further is public. - At what level was the guarantee set, and was the irrevocable bidder the eventual buyer? The lot carried both a house guarantee and an irrevocable bid, but Sotheby's discloses the existence of these arrangements and not their terms. - How many Klimt paintings burned at Schloss Immendorf? The MAK and Klimt Foundation name three Faculty Paintings plus six further canvases from the Lederer collection and two Dumba overdoors; Artnet says as many as ten Klimts; the Wikipedia article says fifteen. No source consulted publishes an authoritative inventory. - Where is Klimt's Portrait of Charlotte Pulitzer of 1917? It has been missing since the end of the war and has never been confirmed as an Immendorf loss. - Did Elisabeth Lederer return to Judaism after her 1938 divorce, as the Wikipedia article states? Under the Nuremberg framework a Mischling of the first degree who belonged to the Jewish religious community counted as a Geltungsjude and was treated as a full Jew, which would cut directly against the effect of the 1940 certificate. The two accounts are not reconciled in any source consulted. - Who was the senior Nazi official, described as a former brother-in-law, who is said to have assisted Elisabeth Lederer? No source consulted names him. - Did the painting appear in the 1936 exhibition of the Verein der Museumsfreunde in Vienna? Sotheby's lists it with the qualifier possibly. - What happened to the canvas between its deposit at Kirchner and Co on 10 December 1939 and its appearance in the abandoned 1948 Dorotheum sale? Sotheby's published chain jumps from the 1939 deposit to the 1948 termination of seizure; the Dorotheum stage comes from secondary accounts. ## Sources - [1] Sotheby's, lot 8, Gustav Klimt, Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer), Leonard A. Lauder, Collector, Evening Auction, New York, 18 November 2025. Published provenance, exhibition history, selected literature, catalogue essay, estimate wording and the guaranteed property and irrevocable bid symbols. - [2] Sotheby's, 'A 236.4 Million Dollar Klimt Portrait Sets Records as Sotheby's Inaugurates the Breuer'. House account of the bidding, the records set and the Lauder collection total. - [3] Kayan Wong, The Value, 'At US$236.3m, Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer becomes the second most expensive work ever auctioned'. Carries the exact figures, hammer USD 205,000,000 and sold USD 236,360,000, and reprints the full lot provenance. - [4] Daniel Cassady, ARTnews, 'Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer Sells for $236.4 M., Highest Price for Any Work of Modern Art Sold at Auction', 18 November 2025. - [5] The Art Newspaper, 'Record $236.3m Klimt leads Sotheby's first night of auctions in Breuer Building', 18 November 2025. Hammer and premium separated, sale totals and white-glove result. - [6] Aaron Short, Hyperallergic, 'Klimt Painting Becomes Second Most Expensive Artwork Ever Sold', 18 November 2025. - [7] Sarah Cascone, Artnet News, 'This Fabulous Gustav Klimt Portrait Is Set to Smash Auction Records. Here's the Incredible Story Behind It', 19 September 2025. The paternity petition, Serena's sworn affidavit, the Reich department for genealogical research, Serena's purchase of Klimt's estate, the abandoned 1948 Dorotheum sale, and Kirsten Appleyard of the National Gallery of Canada on the emperor's cloak. - [8] Gustav Klimt-Datenbank (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), 'The Lederer Family'. Family dates, the contents of the collection, Bartensteingasse 8, the faked family tree, the Immendorf loss and the abandoned 1948 Dorotheum sale. - [9] Gustav Klimt-Datenbank (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), 'The Final Years'. Wartime collapse of income, the turn to portrait commissions, the Asian motifs of the late portraits, and the letter to Serena Lederer requesting an advance. - [10] MAK Museum Vienna with the Klimt Foundation, 'Gustav Klimt, the MAK, and Immendorf Castle: Burnt, Destroyed, Vanished?', exhibition 16 July to 21 September 2025. Names the individual works destroyed on 8 May 1945. - [11] Wikipedia, 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' (a Good Article, citing Natter 2018, Braun 2016, Whitford 1990, Fliedl 1998, Loebl and Wilentz 2025 and Dale for the National Gallery of Canada). TERTIARY: replace with Emily Braun, 'Empire of Ornament: Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer', in Natter ed., Klimt and the Women of Vienna's Golden Age 1900-1918 (Prestel, 2016), pp. 56-79, and Natter, Gustav Klimt: The Complete Paintings (Taschen, 2018), p. 289. - [12] Wikipedia, 'August Lederer', for the 1940 certificate of filiation, the resulting half-Jewish classification, and the contrasting full-Jewish classification of Erich and Fritz. TERTIARY: replace with the Austrian archival record of the Reichsstelle fuer Sippenforschung file and with Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens (Vienna, 2003). - [13] Wikipedia, 'Beethoven Frieze', for the Altaussee recovery, the 1973 sale to the Austrian state in exchange for Kreisky's export licences, and the 2015 rejection of the family claim. TERTIARY: replace with the Austrian Kunstrueckgabebeirat decision of March 2015 and BBC coverage of the same date. - [14] Wikipedia, 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I', for the Altmann chronology: the 1923 will, the 1941 transfer to the Belvedere, Czernin in 1998, Republic of Austria v. Altmann (2004), the 2006 arbitration and the 135 million dollar sale. TERTIARY: replace with the arbitration award text and Anne-Marie O'Connor, The Lady in Gold (2012). - [15] Wikipedia, 'Erich Lederer'. TERTIARY. Flight to Geneva, the restitution effort, the export ban and the frieze sale, death in Geneva 19 January 1985. - [16] Wikipedia, 'Serena Lederer'. TERTIARY. The Bartensteingasse residence, the composition of the collection, the 1940 confiscation and her flight to Budapest. Replace with Christian M. Nebehay, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele und die Familie Lederer (Bern, 1987). - [17] Wikipedia, 'Serge Sabarsky'. TERTIARY. Born Vienna 1912, fled 1938, Madison Avenue gallery from 1968, planned the Neue Galerie with Ronald Lauder, died 1996. Replace with the New York Times obituary of 26 February 1996. - [18] Wikipedia, 'Schloss Immendorf'. TERTIARY. The Freudenthal ownership, the contents of the depot and the fire of 8 May 1945. - [19] Wikipedia, 'Gustav Klimt'. TERTIARY, used for the biography, the Kuenstlercompagnie, the Secession, the Faculty Paintings, the golden phase, Emilie Floege, the fourteen children and the circumstances of his death. Replace with Natter's complete paintings and Nebehay's Gustav Klimt: Dokumentation (Vienna, 1969). - [20] Neue Galerie New York, 'Klimt and the Women of Vienna's Golden Age, 1900-1918', 22 September 2016 to 16 January 2017. Confirms the Elisabeth Lederer portrait in the show alongside the Serena Lederer portrait and both Bloch-Bauer portraits. - [21] Sotheby's, lot 11, Gustav Klimt, Blumenwiese (Blooming Meadow), same sale. Used only for the same-sale comparator and its Koller-Pinell provenance. - [22] The Art Newspaper, 'Sotheby's does a U-turn on new fees structure'. States that from 17 February 2025 Sotheby's buyer's premium reverted to 27 per cent to USD 1 m, 22 per cent from USD 1 m to USD 8 m and 15 per cent above. The schedule in force on the sale date and the basis of the reconciliation. Accessed 2026-09-24. - [23] Kunstrueckgabebeirat (Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board), decision of 6 March 2015 concerning Erich Lederer, unofficial English translation published by the Kommission fuer Provenienzforschung. PRIMARY as to the decision itself; every fact drawn on here comes from its statement of facts, which is the Commission's reading of the archival court file. The decision concerns the Beethoven Frieze and recommends against its return, but its statement of facts sets out the Lederer court file used here: Vienna registration data placing Serena Lederer in her apartment until December 1938, the criminal charges and application to confiscate her assets of 18 January 1940, the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters decision of 18 September 1942 that the goods still stored with Spedition Kirchner and Co were to be confiscated, the suspension of proceedings and dismissal of that application on 31 January 1945, the revocation of the 1938 and 1939 attachment orders by the Vienna City Council on 23 August 1946, the 1946 bankruptcy proceedings on the Lederer estates and the compulsory settlement proposed by Erich Lederer on 25 November 1949. --- 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.