The painting “Litzlberg am Attersee” (Litzlberg on the Attersee) by Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt sold for $40,402,500 after a prolonged bidding battle at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art auction. The painting was bought by a private dealer from Zurich named David Lachenmann who was bidding on behalf of an anonymous private collector, who stated “It’s a masterpiece and in perfect condition.”
“The art market was alive and well at Sotheby’s tonight” said Simon Shaw, Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department in New York.
Klimt’s amazing painting “Litzlberg am Attersee,” was stolen by the Nazis from its Jewish owner and recently returned to the woman’s grandson. The 1915 work depicts verdant hills above the lake of the title in western Austria. Earlier this year, the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg, Austria, returned the work to Georges Jorisch, grandson of Amalie Redlich, who owned it until she was deported to Lodz, a Polish town with a large Jewish ghetto, and never heard from again. The Gestapo sold off her collection.
