The painting Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) by Austrian artist is most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe.
Ednews informs via Al-Jazeera that a late-life masterpiece by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt has sold for 85.3 million pounds ($108.4m), making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe.
Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) was sold on Tuesday to a buyer in the room at Sotheby’s in London after a 10-minute bidding war for a hammer price of 74 million pounds ($94.35m). The higher final figure includes a charge on top of the sale price known as the buyer’s premium.
The sale price well exceeded the presale estimate of 65 million pounds ($80m). It also beat the previous European auction record of $104.3m – 65 million pounds at the time – including buyer’s premium, which was paid for Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture Walking Man I at Sotheby’s in 2010.
Previously, the most expensive painting auctioned in Europe was Claude Monet’s Le Basin aux Nymphéas, which fetched $80.4m at a Christie’s sale in 2008.
The Klimt piece sold on Tuesday was the last portrait completed by the artist before his death in 1918. The painting shows an unidentified woman against a resplendent, China-influenced backdrop of dragons and lotus blossoms. The painting was last sold in 1994, going for $11.6m at an auction in New York.
Sotheby’s said the buyer was art adviser Patti Wong, acting on behalf of a Hong Kong collector.
