Rare Gustav Klimt landscape fetches $53.2 million at Sotheby's NY auction

Record ID: 1725302

  • Title: Rare Gustav Klimt landscape fetches $53.2 million at Sotheby's NY auction
  • Date: 17th May 2023
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MAY 8, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GUSTAV KLIMT’S "INSEL IM ATTERSEE," ESTIMATED AT $45 MILLION (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK VICE PRESIDENT, HEAD OF MODERN EVENING SALE, ALLEGRA BETTINI, SAYING: "It’s a true dynamic landscape that was painted in a lake region outside of Salzburg where the artist vacationed. And it's reall
  • Embargoed: 31st May 2023 19:31
  • Keywords: Klimt Sotheby's auction
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / INTERNET
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / INTERNET
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA004328217052023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Gustav Klimt’s "Insel im Attersee" sold for $53.2 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Tuesday (May 16).
    The selling price of the painting makes it "one of the most significant prices ever achieved for the artist at auction. Following a 7-minute bidding battle, the work sold to a Japanese private collector bidding with Yasuaki Ishizaka, Chairman & Managing Director for Sotheby's Japan," Sotheby's wrote in a press release.
    Painted at the beginning of the 20th century, "Insel im Attersee" depicts the iridescent waters of Austria’s Attersee (Atter Lake) and is the only landscape of this subject by Klimt remaining in private hands.
    "It’s a true dynamic landscape that was painted in a lake region outside of Salzburg where the artist vacationed," said Sotheby's New York Vice President and Head of Modern Evening Sale, Allegra Bettini, last Monday (May 8). "It's really a moment where he paints freely, and he verges so close to abstraction around 1901, 1902, that it's incredibly innovative to see what he's doing, both with perspective, color. It's almost more of a poetic depiction of water than it is a true landscape, which is what I think makes it so exciting."
    (Production: Soren Larson, Christine Kiernan, Roselle Chen)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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