After being missing for almost a century, a long-lost Gustav Klimt artwork has emerged and will be auctioned off on behalf of its Austrian owners. The family has owned the painting privately since the 1960s.
The Viennese auction house Kinsky announced on Thursday that “Bildnis Fraeulein Lieser” (Portrait of Miss Lieser) will be auctioned in April with a potential auction price of up to £43 million.
The family of a rich Jewish manufacturer commissioned Klimt to paint the piece in 1917, just before he passed away.
The dark-haired woman in the well-preserved artwork was first shown to the public in Vienna on Thursday.
On behalf of the present Austrian owners and the Lieser family’s legal heirs, it is scheduled to be auctioned off on April 24 under the terms of a Washington Principles-compliant deal.
That international agreement from 1998 outlined the process for returning works of art that the Nazis had taken.
The piece was last exhibited in 1925 at a Viennese exhibition; the only prior evidence of its existence is a black-and-white picture.
The painting’s previous owner was identified in the photo as a member of the Lieser family, who resided at ‘Argentinierstrasse 20’ in Vienna.
Henriette Lieser, who had remained in Vienna despite the Nazi rule, was deported in 1942 and murdered in Auschwitz in 1943.
When Ernst Ploil, a lawyer and authority on art law, was consulted by the present owner prior to inheriting the painting, the incomplete picture surfaced once more.
According to Ploil on Thursday, despite intensive investigation, it was still unknown how the artwork was acquired by the present owner’s family, which has had it since the 1960s.
‘We have a gap between 1925 and the 1960s,’ he added.
He emphasised, however, that they had not discovered any proof that the piece had been plundered, stolen, or forcibly taken before or during World War II.
According to Ploil, the painting’s back is “completely untouched” and has “no stamps, no stickers, nothing.”
‘There are no indications of any illegal confiscation during the Nazi era, i.e., the usual stamps from the Gestapo or a shipping house where looted art was stored,’ he added.
The descendants of the Lieser family have not yet made any claims, although a few of them have visited Vienna in order to view the artwork.
Rarely do portraits by Klimt become available for purchase.
I must admit, I do love Gustav Klimt’s work. It’s beautiful, with some very vibrant colours, and this is a fabulous find.
If I had it, I would be inclined to keep it even for the money it will bring; it’s so beautiful.
Like the majority of Gustav Klimt’s oeuvre, this picture is fantastic. A woman’s inner fragility and power are well presented, showcasing an amazing use of colour. ‘A scent of a woman’ is more appropriate for the title.
Even though I might not be able to purchase the original artwork, I would be thrilled to have a printed copy.
They say it was lost, but maybe it wasn’t lost at all, and if it was lost, maybe it should have stayed lost because it was being looked after where it was.
Although Gustav Klimt’s artwork may not be to everyone’s taste, there is something very amazing about it.
The thing about some paintings is that a photograph simply doesn’t do them justice. The portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, also called ‘The Lady in Gold’ or ‘The Woman in Gold’ is an oil painting on canvas, with gold leaf, by Gustav Klimt. It’s an amazing painting and the gold leaf gleams in the painting in the original, but this doesn’t show up in a photograph.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 