MOSCOW, 14 Jun. Klimt's 1918 painting «Lady with a Fan» will be put up for auction at Sotheby's with an estimate of $80 million. This is the highest initial score that has ever been given to a product at a European auction, writes CNN.
«Lady with a Fan» is the last portrait created by the famous artist. The identity of the woman depicted in the painting has not yet been identified. The head of Sotheby's Helen Newman called the canvas «the best work of Klimt, written by an artist in his prime», specifies Artnet. She also noted that, unlike many other works by Klimt, this painting was not painted to order, but probably for herself.
Previously, the canvas belonged to Erwin Böhl, an industrialist, friend and patron of Klimt. The next owner is the collector Rudolf Leopold. He sold Girl with a Fan to the current owner's family in 1994 for $12 million.
Klimt is one of the few artists whose works were bought for nine figures. In 2006, Ronald Lauder, businessman and son of the founder of the famous cosmetics company, purchased «Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I» for $135 million. In 2017, Oprah Winfrey announced that she had sold a «Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II» to a Chinese entrepreneur for $150 million, Bloomberg reported. ruble. The leading rate on June 13 reached three million rubles.