The portrait of Fraulein Lieser, known as lost, by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, was found in Vienna, the capital of Austria, after nearly 100 years.
The portrait of Fraulein Lieser, once owned by a Jewish family in Austria, was last seen in public in 1925.
The portrait, whose fate is unknown after this date, has belonged to another family since 1960.
Sold for 32 million dollars
The painting, known to have been lost for nearly 100 years, was put up for auction. The auction started with an opening bid of $29 million.
And it was sold for $32 million, but the identity of the buyer was not disclosed.
The missing painting affected the sale
The fact that the painting had been missing for 100 years made the sale even more remarkable.
In the statement made by im Kinsky auction house in Vienna, the following statements were made:
The rediscovery of this portrait, one of the most beautiful of Klimt’s last creative period, is a sensation. A key figure of Viennese Art Nouveau, Gustav Klimt exemplifies turn-of-the-century Austrian modernism better than any other artist. Portraits of women are rarely sold at auctions.
A painting of such rarity, artistic significance and value had not been on the Central European art market for decades.
Its fate after 1925 is uncertain
To this day, it remains unclear who the member of the Lieser lineage who was the muse of the painting was.
According to the information provided by the auction house, when the painter died of a stroke on February 6, 1918, he left the painting in his studio with small parts unfinished: “After Klimt’s death, the painting was given to the family who commissioned it.”
The only known photograph of the painting is kept in the archives of the Austrian National Library and was probably taken in 1925. The fate of the painting after 1925 is uncertain.
