Painting "Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan). Photo: Reuters
According to auction house Sotheby's, the auction of the painting lasted 10 minutes before it was sold to an unidentified buyer in Hong Kong.
The painting, originally titled Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan), was one of two found in the Austrian artist's studio after his death in 1918, according to Sotheby's. It depicts an unidentified woman wearing a flowing robe, holding a fan, smiling confidently, against a vibrant, oriental background with typical motifs of phoenixes, cranes, dragons and lotus flowers.
Dame mit Fächer (right) photographed in Gustav Klimt's studio in Vienna in 1918. Photo: CNN
Sotheby's has called the portrait Gustav Klimt's "ultimate masterpiece", with the auction house's director of impressionist and modern art sales, Thomas Boyd Bowman, describing the painting before the sale as "stunning".
Dame mit Fächer is the star of Sotheby's summer sale of modern and contemporary art, timed to coincide with the long-awaited reopening of London's National Portrait Gallery. The auction also features portraits by other renowned artists, including Alberto Giacometti and Edvard Munch.
Gustav Klimt's paintings have exploded in value over the past two decades. The Austrian is now one of the few artists whose work has sold publicly for nine-figure sums.
SERIOUS (According to CNN)
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