A painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, believed to have been lost 100 years ago, was sold at auction for about 1,186 million baht.
A painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, believed to have been lost 100 years ago, has sold for $32 million at an auction in Vienna. Austria
Klimt was hired by a family of Jewish factory owners. To paint a painting called “Portrait of Fraulein Lieser” or “Portrait of Miss Lieser,” which was not completed in 1917, a year before his death, but there are many unanswered questions about this painting. The discussion is about who is the woman in the picture, and what happened to this painting during the Nazi era?
It is believed that the picture belongs to one of the daughters of Adolf or Justus Lesser, who are brothers from a family of wealthy Jewish industrialists. Art historian Tobias Nutter and Al said that the painting was a portrait of Margaret Constance Lesser, daughter of Adolf.
But the auction house Im Kinski in Vienna, which is organizing the art auction, suggests that the painting may be of one of the daughters of Justus Lesser and his wife Hendriette, known as “Lili,” a patron of modern art who was deported by the Nazis and died in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. Her daughters, Helen and Annie, survived World War II.
The auction house said in a statement that the true fate of the painting after 1925 remains unclear. “What is known at this time is that it was purchased by the legal heirs of the consignor in the 1960s and passed to the current owner through three successive inheritances, while the identity of the current Austrian owner is unknown. There is no public disclosure.
The paintings were sold on behalf of these owners and the legal successors of Adolf and Henriette Leyser, in accordance with the Washington Consensus. It was an international agreement to return works of art looted by the Nazis. To the heirs of the owners of the stolen paintings
However, Erika Jacobowitz, executive director of the Austrian Jewish Community Presidency, said there were still many unanswered questions and called for an independent investigation into the matter.
“The return of art is a very sensitive issue,” Ms. Jacobowitz said. All research must be conducted correctly and thoroughly. The results must be understandable and transparent. Ensure there is a modern process for special compensation in the future.
Klimt's artworks have raised huge sums of money at auctions in the past. The artwork His Lady with a Fan was auctioned for £85.3 million or about 3,952 million baht at Sotheby's. In June 2023, it was considered the most valuable work of art ever sold at auction in Europe.
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