The sale of a $32 million portrait by Gustav Klimt has fallen through, according to the Austrian paper Der Standard. The painting’s anonymous buyer in Hong Kong withdrew from the sale last month after a private restitution settlement did not go ahead.
In 2024, Klimt’s Portrait of Fräulein Lieser (1917) sold for €30 million, €35 million with fees, ($32.15 million, $37.51 million with fees), on the lower side of its presale estimate of €30 to €50 million. The sale was still a record for Austria, where the auction took place at im Kinsky in Vienna.
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Der Standard reported the anonymous buyer was represented at the auction by Patti Wong & Associates (Hong Kong).
The painting was previously lost for nearly 100 years, and was only known from a black-and-white photo taken in 1925. Gaps in its provenance, especially around World War II, resulted in the im Kinsky auction house working to arrange a settlement between the consignor, a private Austrian citizen, and the heirs of the Lieser family for a share of the sale.
According to Artnet News, the consignor of Portrait of Fräulein Lieser inherited the painting in 2022. However, the decades between 1925, when the black-and white photograph showed the artwork in possession of the Lieser family, and 1961, when Portrait of Fräulein Lieser was recorded in the possession of the consignor’s family were unclear.
It’s worth noting this period includes the Anschluss, when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945. The Nazis heavily persecuted Austria’s Jewish population and hundreds of thousands of people were forced to emigrate.
Dispute over the identity of the sitter of Portrait of Fräulein Lieser, as well as multiple claimants to ownership of the painting before and after its sale led to the anonymous buyer attempting to negotiate indemnification settlements with all known heirs of Adolf and Henriette Lieser for 60 percent of the sale proceeds.
While almost all of these agreements between the buyer and the various heirs were successfully obtained, one ultimately refused to sign a deal, resulting in the painting’s sale failing, according to Der Standard,
Der Standard also estimated that the cost to the im Kinsky auction house for the failed sale “were likely to amount to at least” €1.5 million ($1.7 million).