Stolen Art DealerSquare portrait by Gustav Klimt of a woman with her head raised and one shoulder bare, a fan held across her breast, against a pale yellow background with phoenix and lotus motifs.
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Catalogue No. 2031 · Sotheby's · London
Lady with a Fan
About $119.7 million in today’s money: 1,400 years of the typical US household’s income. Source
- Artist
- Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862–1918)
- Title
- Lady with a Fan (Dame mit Fächer)
- Date
- 1917–18
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 100.2 x 100.2 cm (39 1/2 x 39 1/2 in)
Gustav Klimt painted Lady with a Fan (Dame mit Fächer) in 1917 and 1918, in oil on a square canvas of 100.2 centimetres a side. A woman holds her head high and looks past the viewer, one shoulder bare and her breast covered by a fan. Behind her the pale yellow background carries Chinese motifs of phoenix and lotus. The painting was on an easel in Klimt's studio when he died in February 1918.
It went first to the Galerie Gustav Nebehay in Vienna, then to Erwin Böhler by 1920. His brother Heinrich Böhler owned it next, and on Heinrich's death in 1940 it passed to his wife Mabel Böhler in Lugano. Later owners listed by Sotheby's include Rudolf Leopold, Serge Sabarsky and Wendell Cherry. Cherry's estate sold it at Sotheby's in New York on 11 May 1994, as lot 44, to the family of the present owner.
Sotheby's offered it in London on 27 June 2023, as lot 125 of the Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction. Sotheby's gives the price as £85,305,800, and The Value reports the same sale as $108.4 million. Sotheby's describes it as an auction record for a work of art in Europe and for Klimt at the time of sale.
The sale
- Auction house
- Sotheby's, London
- Date
- 27 June 2023
- Lot
- 125
- Estimate
- In the region of £65 million (about $80 million), per Sotheby's press release; estimate upon request on the lot page
- Sold for
- $108.4 million (including buyer’s premium) · £85,305,800
- Record
- Auction record for a work of art in Europe and for Klimt at the time of sale, per Sotheby's. (as of June 2023)
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Provenance
1917–18
Painted by Klimt; on an easel in his studio at his death in February 1918
1918
Galerie Gustav Nebehay, Vienna
by 1920
Erwin Böhler, Vienna
undated
Heinrich Böhler, Vienna and St. Moritz (brother of the above)
1940
Mabel Böhler, Lugano (wife of the above; inherited from the above)
c. 1963 to at least 1981
Dr Rudolf Leopold, Vienna
undated
Serge Sabarsky, New York
by 1988
Wendell Cherry, New York and Louisville, Kentucky
1994-05-11
Sotheby's, New York, 11 May 1994, lot 44 (consigned by the estate of Wendell Cherry); acquired by the family of the present owner
2023-06-27
Sotheby's, London, Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction, lot 125
Sources
- Sotheby's: Gustav Klimt, Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan), lot 125
- Sotheby's: Klimt's Last Great Portrait Sets New Auction Record
- Sotheby's press release: Gustav Klimt's Final Masterpiece, Dame mit Fächer, Comes to Auction
- Belvedere, Vienna: Lady with Fan
- The Value: Gustav Klimt's final masterpiece goes for a European record US$108.4m
Prices include the buyer’s premium, in US dollars at the time of sale, unless marked as a hammer price.