# What Serena Lederer Actually Bought, Commissioned and Hosted for Klimt > Serena Lederer did not buy Klimt's estate. The Klimt Foundation, Sotheby's and a provenance report show what she commissioned, bought and hosted. > The Study - 2026-11-09 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/what-serena-lederer-bought-from-klimt/ ## Key points - The Klimt Foundation's database records that Klimt's heirs sold his remaining paintings at a memorial exhibition opening on 6 February 1919, with the Lederers among the buyers; the claim in print that Serena Lederer bought the whole estate is not supported by it. - Three acts are Serena's on the evidence read: the 1917 commission of her mother's portrait, the 1919 drawings bought from Nebehay and printed as a 25-sheet portfolio and her help in 1919 to the Belvedere's purchase of the Faculty Painting Medicine. The 1905 rescue of the Faculty Paintings is recorded under August or under both. - No complete inventory of the collection exists, and three sources count it three ways: over eleven paintings, eighteen named titles or 15 identified and 30 unidentified works from 1939. - The Lederers also collected Renaissance and medieval works at auctions, so Klimt is only the part of the collection the fire made famous. ## The estate was sold at a memorial exhibition, and she was one buyer in it ## Six things the documents put in her name or her family's ## In 1905 the Lederers helped Klimt out of a state commission ## The salon, the drawing lessons and the introduction to Schiele ## Nobody can give the size of the collection and the sources count differently ## What the papers say about her as a patron, and what they leave out The Lederer collection has been told as one woman's triumph and as one family's loss, and the first telling inflates what the documents show. What they show is smaller and harder to dismiss: a sitter, a client, a pupil and a buyer, with a few acts that are plainly hers and a great many that belong to the household. ## Questions **Did Serena Lederer buy Klimt's estate?** Artnet News says so in 2025, but the Klimt Foundation does not support it. The Foundation says the heirs sold the paintings through a memorial exhibition run by Gustav Nebehay from 6 February 1919, and that the buyers, mostly established collectors, included the Lederer and Primavesi families and Sonja Knips. **Who commissioned the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer?** Sotheby's provenance says August and Serena Lederer commissioned it in 1914 and acquired it in 1916. Sotheby's adds that Serena allegedly took it from Klimt's studio, a story it says may or may not be accurate. No source read gives a price. **What else did the Lederers collect besides Klimt?** Facts and Files says the couple bought Renaissance and medieval works at auctions, and Sotheby's names a Simone Martini, a Cranach and a Cellini. They also collected Schiele, whom Klimt introduced to them. **How many Klimt works did the Lederers own?** The answer depends on the source. No complete inventory exists; Sotheby's gives over eleven paintings and hundreds of drawings, and the Klimt Foundation's entry names eighteen titles. ## Sources - [1] Gustav Klimt-Datenbank (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), Benefactors: The Lederer Family. - [2] Gustav Klimt-Datenbank (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), Posthumous Fame and Legend: Estate; Estate Exhibition Organized by Gustav Nebehay; Immendorf Castle. - [3] Gustav Klimt-Datenbank (Klimt Foundation, Vienna), The Klimt Affair Surrounding the Faculty Paintings. - [4] Sotheby's, Leonard A. Lauder, Collector, New York, 18 November 2025, lot 8, Gustav Klimt, Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer: provenance and catalogue note. - [5] Facts and Files Historians, Art Collection of August, Serena and Erich Lederer (provenance research project, 2020 to 2022). - [6] J. Paul Getty Trust, The Lederer Collection, Lost and Found, 31 May 2016. - [7] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gustav Klimt, Serena Pulitzer Lederer (1867-1943), accession 1980.412. - [8] Sarah Cascone, Artnet News, 'This Fabulous Gustav Klimt Portrait Is Set to Smash Auction Records', 19 September 2025: the passage on Serena Lederer and Klimt's estate. - [9] Ketterer Kunst, lot entry for Gustav Klimt, Fuenfundzwanzig Handzeichnungen (Gilhofer and Ranschburg, 1919).