Gustav Klimt Painting Sells for $236.4 Million, Becoming Most Valuable Modern Painting

Gustav Klimt‘s legacy just got a little greener.

After all, the symbolist artist’s painting Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (or Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer in English) was sold for $236.4 million, with fees, at Sotheby’s auction in New York Nov. 18.

It was a shining moment at the venue as bidding for the dazzling oil painting of Elisabeth Lederer—whose parents and Klimt’s most important patrons August Lederer and Serena Lederer commissioned the work—soared from $150 million after around 20 minutes between six bidders.

With its hefty price tag, Klimt’s artwork became the second-most-expensive work of art to be auctioned—as well as the most valued modern painting—behind Leonardo da Vinci‘s Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450.3 million in 2017. 

As for who took home the painting? The auction house, unfortunately, declined to identify the buyer. 

The work ultimately became one of Klimt’s final finished pieces—painted between 1914 and 1916—with him dying in 1918 at age 55 from a stroke.