Why is Gustav Klimt Auction Gold?

A mysterious painting by Gustav Klimt became the most expensive work of modern art ever sold at auction in November 2025, but what is it about the Austrian’s paintings that mean they command such high prices at auction?

Feted for his gold-drenched canvases and bold female portraits, Gustav Klimt was a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement, whose work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe, making him one of the most influential art figures of the early 20th century.

And more than a century after his death in 1918 at the age of 55, Klimt not only remains an artist of significant cultural importance, but also a box office presence at auction, especially after his Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer surpassed the $108m record for a Klimt painting set by Lady with a Fan in 2023, to sell for $236.4m.

The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, widely known as Woman in Gold, was sold in 2006 for $135m in a private sale, but the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer remains the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, behind Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, which sold in 2017 for $450.3m.

Six bidders at Sotheby’s competed for the near two-meter-tall portrait of an eerily elongated 20-year-old heiress in a chrysalis like cocoon gown of shimmering white silk and surrounded by multicolored decorative motifs.

The portrait doesn’t glimmer with the same opulence of his better known portraits of Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1907-08) from what is often called his Golden Period, which are on view in the Neue Galerie New York and the Moderne Galerie collection at Lower Belvedere Palace in Vienna, respectively, as well as in prints in living rooms around the world.

So, why is the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer so highly prized? And what makes Klimt such an enticing prospect at auction? We explore his best-selling pieces at auction to discover why.

Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer – $236.4 million (Sotheby’s, November 2025)

Painted between 1914 and ‘16, Klimt died two years later unaware of the cultural significance his portrait would eventually have after being looted by the Nazis in World War II and nearly destroyed in a fire, before being rescued in 1948.

Returned to Lederer’s brother, Erich, the painting stayed in the family until it resurfaced again in 1985 when it was bought by the billionaire heir to Estée Lauder, Leonard A Lauder, where it remained in his Fifth Avenue home in New York until his death in June 2025.

“It was like finding the Holy Grail” explained Lauder of the first time he saw Klimt’s paintings in Vienna as a young boy. “I was actually blown away by it. I had never seen such powerful images as The Kiss and Adele I.”

Depicting the daughter of August and Serena Lederer, one of Vienna’s wealthiest Jewish families, its absence from public view added a sense of mystery to its appeal, so when it appeared again at Sotheby’s, it garnered significant attention.

Surrounded by an elaborate array of ornamental East Asian-influenced motifs in evocative colors reminiscent of Expressionism and dragons on her robe that are reminiscent of Qing Dynasty textiles, this combination of mystique and artistry is enough legacy for any paining, but more was to follow. In the late 1930s, Elisabeth’s Jewish ancestry led to increasing restrictions in Nazi Germany, so she came up with an ingenious plan. When questioned, she falsely claimed that Klimt was her father, capitalizing on his romantic reputation. This was corroborated by Elisabeth’s mother, and the authorities accepted her story and revised her status to ensure protection, adding yet another motif to the already storied painting.

Lady with a Fan (Dame mit Fächer) (1917) – $108.4 million (Sotheby’s, June 2023)

Her identity is unknown, but the Lady with a Fan was Klimt’s final painting and was found on his easel when he died. Unfinished, the painting became the highest-priced artwork at a European auction when it sold for $108.4 million in June 2023 at Sotheby’s.

Rumored to be Johanna Staude, Klimt’s life companion Emilie Flöge, or one of his favorite models, the dame’s unknown identity reflects Klimt’s broad and varied love life. The off the shoulder pose shares similarities with Klimt’s portrait Wally (1916), in which the model’s left shoulder is uncovered, although the painting was destroyed in 1945 during a fire at Immendorf Castle.

And Like many of Klimt’s late works, it incorporates strong Asian influences, including many Chinese motifs. This combination of ornate spectacle with a looser, more modern painterly touch has proved to be particularly appealing to contemporary collectors.

Birch Forest (Birkenwald) (1903) – $104.6 million (Christie’s, November 2022)

Sold as part of the Lauder sale, Birch Forest bulldozed its estimate of $20 to $30 million to sell for over $100 million. One of the few wood scenes painted by Klimt, this early artwork from 1903 connects him most clearly with the Impressionist movement and showcases his broad appeal.

The artistic reference might differ from his latter gold works, but the intense use of color remains with a bold palette that draws the viewer into the dense forest.

“I get up early in the morning, usually around 6am, sometimes earlier sometimes later. If I get up and the weather is fine I go into the nearby forest. I am painting a small beech grove, mixed with a few conifers,” explained Klimt of life in the picturesque village of Litzlberg, situated on Lake Attersee, Austria.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) – $87.9 million (Christie’s, November 2006)

Commissioned by the sitter’s husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a Viennese Jewish banker and sugar magnate, the second portrait of the socialite, and arguably the least famous of the two, they were stolen by the Nazis in 1941 and displayed at the state controlled Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.

Then, in 1998 the Austrian government passed a restitution law stating that property stolen by the Nazis could be returned to its rightful owners, and so Maria Altmann, Adele’s niece, launched a legal battle for ownership of the paining, including the second portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

The painting was returned to Maria in 2006 and was purchased by Oprah Winfrey for almost $88 million, the fourth-highest priced piece of art at auction at the time. It was subsequently sold for $135 million – then the highest price ever paid for a painting – in a sale brokered by Christie’s, and it now hangs in the Neue Galerie, New York. The case, and its dramatization in the film Woman in Gold, drew global attention to the issue of restitution. The painting was lent to Neue Galerie for the exhibition Klimt and the Women of Vienna’s Golden Age, 1900–1918, reuniting it with Portrait I, which was sold for $135 million to Ronald Lauder in 2006.

Blooming Meadow (Blumenwiese) (1908) – $86.9 million (Sotheby’s, November 2025)

Appearing at the same auction as the Lady with a Fan and the following entry, Blumenwiese marks a change in Klimt’s approach to any of his previous landscapes with a more liberated and daring style.

Painted over the summer of 1908, the painting offers a flat, kaleidoscopic carpet of colors that captures the wildflowers native to the Lake Attersee region. Such was the change that Klimt’s contemporaries came to regard his painting as a set of “new eyes” through which to look at nature.

The work’s early provenance, including its ownership by Viennese modernist Broncia Koller-Pinell and her industrialist husband Hugo Koller and its likely appearance at the 1910 Venice Biennale, have only added to its appeal over the years.

Forest Slope in Unterach on the Attersee (Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee) (1916) – $68.3 million (Sotheby’s, November 2025)

Another work from the Lauder sales, the painting is believed to be the last surviving landscape painted by Klimt, and as a result it attracted strong bidding.

Klimt produced another, smaller landscape of the village of Bad Gastein in 1917, but like many of his works owned by the Lederer family, it was confiscated by the Nazis and destroyed in the 1945 fire at Immendorf Castle.

His final three summers between 1914 and 16 were spent living near his regular companions, the Flöge family. It was there, opposite the small town of Unterach, that Klimt painted Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee, in which he presented a vision and what he described as a Stimmung (a mood or atmosphere).

Insel im Attersee (Island in the Attersee) (1901–1902) – $53.2 million (New York, 2023)

Like Forest Slope, this is one of Klimt’s beloved square-format landscapes, capturing his impressionistic view of the Austrian lake, which has drawn comparisons with paintings by Claude Monet due to the similarities in their depiction of water.

The mesmerizing blue waters signify a new approach to landscape painting that proved to be a key moment in Klimt’s career. An ocean of color dominates the painting that abandons perspective and subjective to immerse the viewer into the nature of Atter Lake in Austria.

Golden Artist

Since Klimt’s early death at the age of 55 in 1918, the relatively few works that he produced have become increasingly popular with collectors, particularly after Austrian restitution. His imagery is globally recognizable and that combination of rare but famous has made his artworks desirable among collectors and enthusiasts.

His work stands at an artistic crossroads between symbolism and modernism, fine art and design, intimacy and spectacle. As a result, Klimt’s art has a broad allure that attracts collectors of old masters, modern art, as well as collectors searching for an instantly iconic masterwork.

Demand from Klimt’s art continues to grow. Whether it’s at auction or in department stores where his prints of The Kiss remain in high demand, the alluring eroticism of his art sparkles alongside his decorative approach, making his artworks auction gold.