A Klimt Painting Makes a Splash at Auction

A painting by Gustav Klimt just made headlines. It sold for a whopping $236. 4 million at Sotheby's in New York. This makes it the second most expensive painting ever sold at an auction. The painting is a portrait of a young woman. She is wearing a fancy Chinese dragon robe. It was painted between 1914 and 1916. The painting was part of a bigger collection. It belonged to a man named Lauder. The collection was sold in two parts. The first part brought in a total of $575. 5 million. That's a lot of money! The painting was estimated to sell for around $150 million. But it ended up selling for much more. The bidding went on for over 19 minutes. People in the room were excited. They clapped when the price hit $200 million. The most expensive painting ever sold at an auction is still "Salvator Mundi" by Leonardo da Vinci. It sold for $450. 3 million in 2017. The Klimt painting is now the second most expensive. The painting was hanging in Lauder's apartment for almost 40 years. It is one of only two full-length portraits by Klimt still in private hands. The other one is "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, " also known as "Woman in Gold. " It sold for $135 million in a private sale in 2006. The sale was a big deal for Sotheby's. They had agreed to pay Lauder's estate a minimum amount for all the works in the collection. This was to win the right to sell them. The collection included two other landscapes by Klimt. One sold for $86 million and the other for $68. 3 million. The buyer of the Klimt portrait was not revealed. The sale shows that the art market is still strong. Even in tough times, people are willing to pay big money for famous paintings.