A painting by the famous Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt, topped $50 million at Sotheby’s annual spring auction in New York.
This was the first time the work had gone under the hammer.
The early 20th-century painting ‘Insel im Attersee’ (‘Island on Lake Attersee), was sold to a Japanese collector for $53.2 million, Sotheby’s auction house announced on Wednesday.
The landscape painting depicts a glistening stretch of turquoise water in vibrant colours characteristic of Klimt, who was a quintessential member of the Art Nouveau movement.
The work sold after a seven-minute bidding war, the auction house said.
The painting ‘Empire of Lights’ by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte (1898-1967) was also sold – for a hefty $42.3 million.
All told, Sotheby’s Tuesday night auction brought in about $427 million.
