New York witnessed unprecedented auction milestones this week as Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer and Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait El sueño (La cama) shattered long-standing records, signaling a robust recovery in the contemporary art market.
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer commanded an astonishing $236.4 million (approximately Rs 2,095 crore) at Sotheby’s in New York on November 18, securing its place as the most expensive modern artwork ever sold at auction and the second-highest-priced artwork ever auctioned globally. The six-foot-tall portrait, painted between 1914 and 1916, depicts Elisabeth Lederer, the young daughter of Klimt’s patrons, draped in an ornate Chinese robe against a periwinkle backdrop. The painting merges Eastern and Western artistic traditions, embodying Vienna’s golden age of culture and style.
The work’s journey to the auction block reads like a historical narrative. Created during Klimt’s artistic maturity, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer miraculously survived the devastation of World War II. Unlike many of Klimt’s other works that were destroyed in a fire at Immendorf Castle, this portrait was preserved, protected partly because the Nazi regime deemed family portraits of Jewish subjects too insignificant to pursue. The painting became part of Leonard A. Lauder’s distinguished collection in 1985 and remained the centerpiece of his Fifth Avenue residence until his death earlier this year.
The auction itself proved intensely competitive. Bidding commenced at $130 million with six collectors vying for the masterpiece throughout a dramatic 20-minute battle. When the gavel finally fell on November 18, the price exceeded Sotheby’s own pre-sale estimate of $150 million, marking a record for any artwork sold by the auction house worldwide.
Just two days later, on November 20, another historic record fell when Frida Kahlo’s haunting 1940 self-portrait El sueño (La cama)—titled The Dream (The Bed) in English—sold for $54.7 million (£41.8m), shattering the auction record for any artwork by a female artist. The sale surpassed Georgia O’Keeffe’s previous record of $44.4 million for Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, achieved in 2014.
Kahlo’s self-portrait also broke her own auction record; her 1949 work Diego and I fetched $34.9 million in 2021. The painting’s imagery captures the artist’s deeply personal meditation on mortality and suffering. It depicts Kahlo resting in a colonial-style wooden bed floating amid clouds, wrapped in a golden blanket and entwined with vines and leaves, while a skeletal figure wrapped in dynamite hovers ominously above. The suspended skeleton is widely interpreted as a manifestation of Kahlo’s fears regarding dying in her sleep—concerns deeply rooted in her traumatic past.
Kahlo’s artistic journey informs the work’s profound symbolism. Following a devastating bus accident at age 18, she spent much of her life bedridden, undergoing numerous painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis while wearing body casts. During these periods of confinement, Kahlo began viewing her bed as a bridge between different worlds, contemplating her own mortality. Though catalogued as surrealism, Kahlo famously resisted this classification, stating, “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”
Both sales reflect a renewed vitality in the global art market following three sluggish years. The consecutive record-breaking auctions underscore the enduring appeal of modernist masterpieces and signal robust collector appetite for historically significant works. While the identities of both buyers remain undisclosed, these transactions represent pivotal moments in art market history and affirm the transcendent value placed on artistic genius and cultural significance.
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
