(London) The painting of the most famous of Austrian painters Gustav Klimt The lady with the fan on Tuesday in London broke the record for an auction in Europe, sold under the hammer at 74 million pounds sterling ($107 million).
Sotheby’s, which organized the sale, had presented this work, one of the last paintings by Klimt (1862-1918), as “not only the star of the summer auction season in London, but also the one of the most beautiful and precious ever offered in Europe”.
Once the costs inherent in the sale are added, the buyer, whose identity has not been revealed, will have to pay more than 85 million pounds ($123 million).
The lady with the fan thus dethroned the previous European record held since February 2010 by a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, walking man Iwhich had sold at the time for 65 million pounds ($94 million), already at Sotheby’s.
Gustav Klimt had painted this canvas in 1917, a year before his death in 1918 at the age of 55.
The world record in an auction is also held by a painting by Klimt, The birch forest (1903) sold last year for $104.5 million at Christie’s in New York.