Stolen Art DealerGustav Klimt’s full-length portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer in a wide black hat, pale gown with a violet sash and fur-trimmed stole, standing before bands of red, green and pink decorated with Asian-inspired figures, flowers and a swirling violet carpet.
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Catalogue No. 01 · Christie’s · New York
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II
Sold for
$87.9million
Christie’s, New York · 8 November 2006 · 15th of 392 in the Record Book
Confirmed by two sourcesAbout $147 million in today’s money: 1,700 years of the typical US household’s income. Source
- Artist
- Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862–1918)
- Title
- Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II
- Date
- 1912
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 190 × 120 cm (74¾ × 47¼ in)
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The Nazis took her portrait. Her niece spent years taking it back. This is Adele Blohk-Bower, painted by Gustav Klimt in nineteen twelve. She's the only person we know Klimt painted twice, full-length. The first was his Woman in Gold. This time, no gold at all. In nineteen thirty-eight, the Nazis seized her widower's paintings. By nineteen forty-three, she hung in Austria's national gallery. She stayed six decades. Then her niece, Maria Altmann, sued the Republic of Austria, in her eighties. Her fight reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In two thousand six, Austria had to give her back. That November, she went under the hammer at Christie's in New York. Two phone bidders fought up to sixty million. Then a third cut in. Sold, for eighty-seven point nine million dollars. Triple Klimt's previous record. The buyer? Reportedly Oprah Winfrey, who later resold it for a reported hundred and fifty million dollars. Not bad for a portrait the Nazis once took. Follow Stolen Art Dealer. The story behind the price, every day.
Adele Bloch-Bauer is the only person Klimt is known to have painted twice, full-length. The first portrait, from 1907, is the gold-leaf “Woman in Gold”. Five years later he painted her again with no gold at all: a black hat, a violet sash and bands of colour inspired by East Asian art.
After the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, her widower Ferdinand fled and his property was seized. The estate’s administrator sold this portrait to Austria’s national gallery in 1943. It hung in the Belvedere in Vienna for more than six decades.
Adele’s niece, Maria Altmann, sued the Republic of Austria in her eighties. In 2004 the US Supreme Court ruled that Austria could not claim immunity, so the case could go ahead. In January 2006 an arbitration panel ordered five Klimts returned to the family.
That November the portrait sold at Christie’s New York. Two telephone bidders fought through $50 million and $60 million before a third came in at $74 million and won. With fees the price was $87.9 million, against an estimate of $40–60 million and nearly three times Klimt’s previous record. The buyer was later reported to be Oprah Winfrey.
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The painting, over the heart. Made to order.
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T-shirt from $38
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The sale
- Auction house
- Christie’s, New York
- Date
- 8 November 2006
- Lot
- 54
- Estimate
- $40–60 million
- Sold for
- $87.9 million (including buyer’s premium)
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Provenance
1912
Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer, Vienna, owned the portrait from the year it was painted.
1938
After the Nazi annexation of Austria, Ferdinand fled and the authorities seized his property, including the painting.
1943
The estate’s administrator, Dr. Erich Führer, sold the portrait to the Österreichische Galerie, now the Belvedere, in Vienna.
January 2006
An Austrian arbitration panel ruled that five Klimts, this one included, must go back to Maria Altmann and the other heirs. The works left Austria in March 2006.
8 November 2006
Sold at Christie’s New York, lot 54, for $87,936,000 to an anonymous telephone bidder.
2014–2016
On long-term loan to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from September 2014 to August 2016.
2016
Reportedly sold privately for $150 million to an unnamed Chinese buyer, in a deal reportedly brokered by Larry Gagosian with David Geffen. Bloomberg reported this in 2017, and the parties have not confirmed it. Reported
2022–2024
Lent to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, and to the Belvedere, Vienna, credited as “Private collection, courtesy of HomeArt”.
See it on a wall
Sources
- ARTnews: Gold Rush (Eileen Kinsella, January 2007)
- Antiques and The Arts Weekly: Christie’s Posts Most Valuable Sale in History of Auctioneering
- The Art Wolf: Christie’s November 2006 Impressionist and Modern evening sale results
- Neue Galerie New York: Gustav Klimt, Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer
- Belvedere Vienna: Special Guest, Adele Bloch-Bauer II (2023–24)
- NBC News: Oprah Sells Gustav Klimt Painting for $150 Million (February 2017)
Prices include the buyer’s premium, in US dollars at the time of sale, unless marked as a hammer price.
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