Sale of the century for a mysterious painting by Klimt, in Austria

It's the sale of the century in Austria: Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Mademoiselle Lieser, estimated at between 30 and 50 million euros, is being auctioned this Wednesday April 24 in Vienna, despite the gray areas surrounding its provenance.

The event is historic in more than one way, “no comparable work” having ever been offered in the artist's native country, according to Claudia Mörth-Gasser, head of the modern art section at the Im house. Kinsky. “No one expected that a painting of this importance, which had disappeared for a hundred years, would resurface,” she said, while the previous Austrian record amounted to “only” 7 million euros for a Flemish painting sold in 2010.

The price could rise very high, given the current price of Klimt, a painting of which was sold in June 2023 in London for 86 million euros, unheard of in Europe. This resurrected and unsigned portrait therefore caused a sensation. Especially since it is very well preserved and has never left Austria. Since it was unveiled in January, people have rushed to admire it at exhibitions preceding the sale in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and Hong Kong.

Also read: The many mysteries surrounding a portrait of Klimt found in Vienna

And of course at home in a magnificent baroque palace in the heart of the capital, surrounded by sketches by the master and other works by contemporaries like Egon Schiele, also appearing in the sale which is due to start at 5 p.m. (3 p.m. GMT).

The canvas, begun in 1917 and remaining unfinished, represents a young brunette woman with precise features, adorned with a large cape richly decorated with flowers on a bright red background. The painter died the following year and a mystery, hotly debated in the specialist press, still surrounds the identity of the model.

Who is this young Viennese from the wealthy upper middle class, who visited the workshop of the adored genius of her time nine times? Only one thing is certain: she comes from the Lieser family, a great Jewish industrial dynasty, patron of the artistic avant-garde. But is she one of the two daughters named Helene and Annie of Henriette (Lilly) Lieser, a wealthy divorcee who was a pioneer in the emancipation of women? Or that of his brother-in-law Adolf, Margarethe, as claimed in a first complete catalog of Klimt's works, produced in the 1960s? The only photo of the painting known to date, probably taken in 1925 as part of an exhibition, would suggest that it belonged to Lilly Lieser that year.

According to the daily Der Standard, which is based on correspondence archived in an Austrian museum, she could have entrusted it to a member of her staff before dying in deportation at the end of 1943. The painting then reappeared at the home of a Nazi trader before her daughter , then distant relatives inherit it in turn. But for Kinsky, which specializes in restitution procedures, it is a “hypothesis among others”. After the war, the painting was never claimed, unlike other goods, by one of the three Lieser descendants who had all survived.

Bound to confidentiality, Claudia Mörth-Gasser explains to AFP that her employer was contacted two years ago for legal advice by its owners, who wish to remain anonymous. Im Kinsky informed the current beneficiaries of the two Lieser branches, who live in particular in the United States. Some traveled to see the painting, before signing a contract with the owners, thus removing an obstacle to the sale of the painting. Nothing has filtered out about the terms of this amicable agreement and experts are criticizing a procedure deemed too rapid, despite the uncertainties over the fate of a work of immense value.

“Its provenance having not been able to be fully clarified until now”, it would have been necessary to take the time for a more in-depth examination, says Monika Mayer, head of the archives at the Belvédère museum, which houses the Klimt's famous Kiss.

Comments corroborated by Erika Jakubovits, cultural director of the Jewish Community of Vienna, who has been involved for decades in the restitution of works of art stolen by the Nazis. “For me, the “Portrait of Mademoiselle Lieser” still presents too many unresolved questions,” she explained to La Repubblica, which carried out a major investigation into the painting in question. “I think this case should make the subject of an independent and in-depth investigation and that its history should be reconstructed accurately, as is the case for each painting analyzed in the context of restitutions. And the investigation should be conducted independently of the auction house, the current owner and heirs. It would be better to clarify all these questions before the sale. Moreover, the painting was not presented in the United States, for fear that it would be confiscated by the courts in the event of a dispute, as is the rule for works suspected of being spoliations.