Klimt for $135 million.

[LabelKing]

http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/...tura&idioma=en

A fairly unknown artist (in mainstream terms) manages to sell for quite a high sum.

 

[Lucky Strike]

That will be a record with some longevity.

 

[designprofessor]

Assuming I had the cash to buy it, don't know if I'd chosen Klimt.

A few I would buy at a fraction of that price:

A Sargent landscape

Alphonse Mucha

Fantin Latour

A Frank Stella black painting

 

[Trilby]

Not sure I would describe Klimt as a fairly unknown artist, but I agree that he is outside the mainstream of the impressionists, Van Gogh and Picasso whose paintings always reach very high prices.

The identity of the buyer (the Neue Galerie/Ron Lauder) goes some way to explaining the high price. It's a major painting that would never ordinarily come to market - and this will become the centrepiece of Lauder's collection. It was a must-have for him and the museum.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by designprofessor

Assuming I had the cash to buy it, don't know if I'd chosen Klimt.

A few I would buy at a fraction of that price:

A Sargent landscape

Alphonse Mucha

Fantin Latour

A Frank Stella black painting

Stella is interesting. Growing up, we had a few pieces of his including what was probably the best of his copper series (generally thought to be his second best series after the blacks). I was never a huge fan and never paid much attention to him.

A few yers ago, my wife and I went to a Minimalism show at MOCA in LA. The first room of the show was completely black Stellas and it was one of the most breathtaking rooms I have ever been in. Since that time, I still do not love the copper one when I visit my parents, but I have more respect for it. Stella made a huge mistake by tring to capitalize on his great early work rather than grow from it.

I like Klimt very much.

 

[SGladwell]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

A fairly unknown artist (in mainstream terms) manages to sell for quite a high sum.

I don't know. I would bet that "Der Kuss" is on more college kids' walls than any other painting.

But about this sale, I'm not so sure. It seems like a desire to punish Austria for their past played a huge role in the family getting the painting back. After all, Frau willed her art collection to the Austrian state upon her death in the mid-1920s, and her husband didn't change his family wills under he left then- Nazi Austria.

 

[LabelKing]

I don't feel Klimt is going to be fulfill recognition as say Picasso. Although The Kiss is very iconic for some reason. What would Adolf Loos say?

Egon Schiele was rather unknown until "rediscovered".

 

[Lucky Strike]

Originally Posted by SGladwell

... After all, Frau willed her art collection to the Austrian state upon her death in the mid-1920s, and her husband didn't change his family wills under he left then- Nazi Austria.
I think the story was that he was under strong pressure not to change the will(s), at least to be able to leave. Not sure about this, though, I might be confusing it with another case.

 

[SGladwell]

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

I think the story was that he was under strong pressure not to change the will(s), at least to be able to leave. Not sure about this, though, I might be confusing it with another case.

I don't know, you might be right.

But my point is that changing a will in 1938 - 1934 at the earliest, because the von Schuschnigg government's hold on the country during the "Lagerkampf" of pre-Anschluss Austria was nominal at best, and the gaining strength of the Nazis during that time was pretty apparent - for someone who died in the previous decade is just not on.

 

[aybojs]

Klimt's renditions of Judith and Athena are extremely famous too; he's not a one-trick pony nor is he viewed as such by anyone with a general background in art. He's certainly the most famous of the Austrian Art Nouveau triumvirate ahead of Schiele and Kokoschka.

 

[designprofessor]

Here she is for 135 million.

 

[johnapril]

Penthouse in Monaco.

 

[ATM]

"You overpaid."
- Thomas Crown

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by ATM

"You overpaid."
- Thomas Crown

Yeah, I mean a Van Gogh I could understand, but this? No.

Jon.

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by imageWIS

Yeah, I mean a Van Gogh I could understand, but this? No.

Jon.
It's gold!