"The painting helped save the life of its Jewish subject from Nazis during World War II. A Gustav Klimt portrait has sold for $236.4m, a record for a modern art piece. Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold after a 20-minute bidding war at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday. The painting helped save the life of its Jewish subject from the Nazis during World War II."
"The 6-foot-tall (1.8-metre) portrait, painted over three years between 1914 and 1916, depicts the daughter of one of Vienna's wealthiest families adorned in an East Asian emperor's cloak. It is one of two full-length portraits by the Austrian artist that remain privately owned. The work was kept separate from other Klimt paintings that burned in a fire at an Austrian castle."
"The painting depicts the Lederer family's life of luxury before Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938. The Third Reich looted the Lederer art collection, leaving only the family portraits, which were considered too Jewish to be worth stealing, according to the National Gallery of Canada, where the painting was previously on loan. In an attempt to save herself, Elisabeth Lederer made up a story that Klimt, who was not Jewish and died in 1918, was her father."
Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold at Sotheby's in New York for $236.4m after a 20-minute bidding war, establishing a record for modern art. The six-foot-tall portrait was painted between 1914 and 1916 and shows the daughter of a wealthy Viennese family wearing an East Asian emperor's cloak. The painting survived separately from other Klimt works that burned in a castle fire and remained privately owned. The Third Reich looted the Lederer collection but left family portraits. Elisabeth Lederer falsely claimed Klimt as her father, secured documentation with a Nazi official's help, and stayed in Vienna until 1944. Sotheby's did not disclose the buyer.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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