Gustav Klimt landscape expected to fetch up to $80M at New York auction
- 'Litzlbergkeller,' which set auction record for artist in 1997, returns to market after nearly 3 decades
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- 'Litzlbergkeller,' which set auction record for artist in 1997, returns to market after nearly 3 decades
By Halis Sunnetci
ISTANBUL (AA) - A landscape painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt is expected to fetch between $60 million and $80 million at a Christie's auction in New York next month, nearly three decades after setting an auction record for the artist.
The painting, titled Litzlbergkeller (1915–16), will headline the auction house's 20th Century Evening Sale on Nov. 17, Christie's announced Monday.
The work last appeared at auction in May 1997, when it sold for $14.7 million at Sotheby's in New York, setting an auction record for Klimt at the time.
Commissioned by Austrian banker and art patron Otto Primavesi, the painting depicts a brewery and inn on the northern shore of Lake Attersee in Austria, where Klimt spent many summers between 1900 and his death in 1918.
The landscape features dense green foliage and shimmering reflections on the water, combining the artist's decorative painting technique with elements of abstraction.
The work was previously owned by art dealer and collector Serge Sabarsky, co-founder of New York's Neue Galerie, and has been on long-term loan to the Leopold Museum in Vienna in recent years.
Klimt's current auction record stands at $236.4 million, set in November 2025 when his Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold at Sotheby's in New York.
Another Klimt landscape, Birch Forest, fetched $104.5 million at Christie's in 2022.
Ahead of the November auction, Litzlbergkeller will be exhibited in Hong Kong from Oct. 27 to 29 before going on display at Christie's Rockefeller Center galleries in New York starting Nov. 7.
Halis Sünnetci