A woman who fought a court battle to win back five valuable paintings by Gustav Klimt taken from her heirs by the Nazis will sell the remaining works from her collection after the first fetched a record $135-million.
United States-based Maria Altmann, niece of the Bloch-Bauers who originally owned the paintings, has hired Christie’s to handle the sale of works with a combined value estimated at between $100-150 million, the auctioneer said on Monday.
The collection hit the headlines in June when it was announced that a 1907 portrait by the Austrian artist had been purchased by cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder for $135-million, the highest amount ever paid for a painting.
The portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist, is considered one of Klimt’s masterpieces, and was the most valuable of the five paintings owned by Altmann, experts say.
A spokesperson for Christie’s in London said the sale of the four remaining paintings would probably be private, as opposed to an open auction. – Reuters