'Missing' Klimt Painting Sold for $32 Million
You might think a work of art can be seen forever. But many museums actually hide most of their collections. The Louvre in Paris only shows 8% of its huge collection of artworks at any time, and the Guggenheim in New York shows only 3%.
Some works of art aren't seen for years — and this is especially true if they're not in a museum, but in the hands of a private collector.
In April, a Gustav Klimt painting that had not been seen for almost 100 years was sold at auction for $32 million.
It's called Portrait of Fräulein Lieser, and it's thought to be one of the Austrian artist's last paintings.
It was actually not quite finished when Klimt died in 1918, and experts can't agree on who the lady in the painting is.
Im Kinsky, the Austrian auction house where the painting was sold, said it wasn't clear what had happened to it after 1925, when it was part of an exhibition.
They do know that it changed hands in the 1960s, and was passed down in inheritance until it was sold in April.
It's thought the painting never left Austria, and there are questions about what happened to it during World War II.
The auction, in Vienna, began at $28 million. It had been hoped the painting might make as much as $53 million, so its $32 million sale price was actually a little low.
Since the auction house was told about the painting in 2022, it has been shown around the world.
Klimt is perhaps best known for his 1908 artwork The Kiss. However, his very last painting, called Dame mit Fächer, or Lady with a Fan, sold for $108.4 million in 2023.
It was the most expensive artwork ever sold in Europe.
