Klimt Masterpiece Sells For $236 Million In Record Auction

A Gustav Klimt portrait has sold for about $236 million at Sotheby’s in New York, becoming the most expensive work of modern art ever auctioned. The 1914 to 1916 painting: “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” drew intense bidding before being secured by an anonymous phone buyer.

The sale ranks as the second highest auction price ever achieved for an artwork, behind Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which sold for $450 million in 2017. The result also surpasses Andy Warhol’s “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,” the previous modern record holder.