Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer has made history, selling for an astonishing $236.4 million at Sotheby’s New York—setting a new record for the artist and the auction house. This rare masterpiece captivated global collectors and became the highlight of the Leonard Lauder Collection sale.
The contemporary art market is experiencing its biggest shrinkage in living history as gallery closures accelerate and sales plummet from 2022 onwards. What insiders had originally thought might prove a cyclic slowdown increasingly appears set to result in a root-and-branch overhaul of an over-burgeoned ecosystem.