June 27, 2023
£85 Million in London: Klimt's 'Lady with a Fan' Breaks European Records
Gustav Klimt's final, unfinished portrait 'Lady with a Fan' sold in London for £85.3 million — the most expensive work of art ever auctioned in Europe at the time.
In June 2023, a hush fell over a Sotheby's saleroom in London as bidding climbed past every expectation. Gustav Klimt's 'Lady with a Fan' (Dame mit Fächer), the shimmering, unfinished portrait found on his easel when he died in 1918, sold for £85.3 million.
The price set a new record for any work of art sold at auction in Europe. Painted in Klimt's late, decorative style — gold-flecked, sensuous, steeped in East Asian motifs — the picture distils everything that makes him one of the most coveted names in art.
That such a sum changed hands in London underscored the city's enduring pull at the very top of the global art market.
Image: “The Kiss - Gustav Klimt - Google Cultural Institute” — Gustav Klimt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.