A Gustav Klimt painting thought to have been lost for almost a century sold at the lower end of its assessed value, with bidders deterred by the artwork’s ownership during the Nazi occupation of Austria.
Klimt’s Portrait of Fräulein Lieser (1917) hit the block Wednesday at the Kinsky Auction House in Vienna and was sold for €30 million ($32 million). The hammer price paid by an unidentified bidder from Hong Kong was at the bottom end of the €30 to €50 million assessed value and well below June’s $108 million sale of a Klimt portrait, including auction house fees, at Sotheby’s London in June.