A Gustav Klimt portrait painting shattered auction records on Tuesday night, selling for $236 million at Sotheby's in New York, marking the highest price ever paid for a modern art piece. The same evening featured another headline-grabbing sale when a fully functional solid gold toilet created by provocative Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan fetched $12.1 million.
Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" became the centerpiece of the auction after an intense 20-minute bidding war that attracted at least six serious collectors. The painting not only set a new record for modern art but also became the most expensive work of art ever sold by Sotheby's worldwide. The portrait depicts the young daughter of one of Klimt's patrons and represents one of the few works by the Austrian artist that survived World War II completely intact.
The painting's survival story adds to its historical significance. While many of Klimt's other works were destroyed in a fire at an Austrian castle during the war, this particular portrait was kept separately and thus escaped destruction. The piece was part of the extensive art collection of billionaire Leonard A. Lauder, heir to cosmetics giant The Estée Lauder Companies, who passed away earlier this year.
This record-breaking sale follows another significant Klimt auction in 2024, when a portrait of a young woman long believed to be lost sold for $32 million at an auction in Vienna. That painting, titled "Portrait of Fräulein Lieser," was one of Klimt's final works before his death in 1918. Klimt, who worked primarily in Vienna during the early 1900s, is perhaps best known for his iconic painting "The Kiss."
The evening's other notable sale involved Cattelan's controversial artwork titled "America" – a 223-pound, 18-karat gold toilet that began bidding at approximately $10 million. Cattelan, the provocative Italian artist known for taping a banana to a wall, has described the piece as a satire of superwealth. "Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise," the artist once explained. Sotheby's characterized the golden commode as an "incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value."
The toilet, owned by an unnamed collector, is one of two identical pieces that Cattelan created in 2016. Its companion piece has a more colorful history – it was displayed at New York's Guggenheim Museum in 2016, with the museum pointedly offering to lend it to President Trump when he requested to borrow a Van Gogh painting. The piece later traveled to England for display at Blenheim Palace, the historic country manor where Winston Churchill was born.
However, the second toilet's story took a dramatic turn when it was stolen from Blenheim Palace while on exhibition. Two men were subsequently convicted in connection with the toilet heist, but the artwork's current whereabouts remain unknown. Investigators believe the stolen piece was likely broken apart and melted down for its gold content. The "America" toilet that sold on Tuesday was exhibited at Sotheby's New York headquarters in the weeks leading up to the auction, allowing potential buyers to view the controversial piece firsthand.
