Sotheby’s will open its global headquarters in New York’s Breuer Building in November with a $400 million auction of works from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection. The 24-lot evening sale will feature three never-before-auctioned Gustav Klimt masterpieces, led by Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914–16), which is estimated in excess of $150 million.
The portrait is one of only two full-length portraits from this period believed to still be in private hands. The painting depicts Elisabeth Lederer, daughter of August and Serena Lederer, Klimt’s greatest patrons. If sold for its estimated price, it will far exceed the artist’s previous auction record set in 2023 for Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) (1917), which sold at Sotheby’s London for £85.3 million ($106.75 million). It would also mark the first work to sell for more than $100 million at auction since René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières (1954), which sold at Christie’s New York last November for $121.16 million and was the most expensive work sold at auction that year.
The other Klimt works featured in the upcoming Sotheby’s sale are Blumenwiese (1908), a mosaic-like wildflower meadow estimated in excess of $80 million, and Waldhag bei Unterach am Attersee (1916), believed to be Klimt’s final landscape, estimated in excess of $70 million.
“To have not just one but three rare superb museum-quality masterpieces by Klimt, none of which has previously been offered on the open market, coming up for sale together, represents a truly unique moment,” said Helena Newman, chairman of Impressionist & Modern art worldwide at Sotheby’s, in a statement. “The Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer epitomizes the aesthetic of Vienna’s Golden Age in which youth, beauty, color, and ornament are fused into a stunning Modernist portrait, whilst the two exquisite square format landscapes, Blumenwiese (1908) and ‘Waldhag bei Unterach am Attersee (1916) attest to Klimt’s liberation from the traditional conventions of painting.”
Leonard A. Lauder, a businessman known for his time as chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies, is widely recognized as one of the most influential American art collectors of his generation. He started his collection in 1966 with the purchase of a Kurt Schwitters collage, going on to acquire a leading collection of Cubist artworks, which he later gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also championed New York institutions, providing the Whitney Museum of American Art with a record $131 million endowment in 2008. Lauder passed away in July at the age of 92.
“A towering figure in the worlds of art, philanthropy and business, Leonard A. Lauder will long be remembered as an extraordinary art patron with a passion for collecting across artistic periods, mediums and genres, and for transforming the Whitney and Metropolitan Museums with his vision and generosity,” said Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart. “We are honored to be entrusted with his exceptional collection, which will captivate collectors worldwide.”
The auction will also feature six bronze statues by Henri Matisse, together expected to realize a price “in the region” of $30 million. This includes Figure décorative (1908), a sculpture of a naked woman reclining, inspired by both Islamic art and proto-Renaissance artists. According to Sotheby’s senior specialist Simon Stock, “This is the most important group of Matisse bronzes to come to auction in recent memory.” Other works include La Serpentine (1909), Nu couché I (Aurore) (1907), and the complete series of Henriette busts.
Other highlights include Edvard Munch’s Midsummer Night (ca. 1901–03), which is estimated at $20 million, and Agnes Martin’s The Garden (1964), a rare canvas that has been featured in several significant exhibitions, including Martin’s 1992 retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art.
