Klimt's $236.4M Portrait Leads Record $706M Night at Sotheby's Breuer

Sotheby's inaugural evening auction at its new Breuer Building headquarters in New York on November 18, 2025, achieved the highest total ever for a single evening sale: $706 million. The session opened with the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, achieving a white-glove sale with 24 lots sold 100%, 83% above estimates. Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' (1914-16) sold for $236.4 million, setting a new auction record for the artist and the highest price ever achieved by Sotheby's. It is the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, behind Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' ($450 million). Two other Klimt landscapes, 'Blumenwiese' ($86 million) and 'Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee' ($68.3 million), plus two works on paper, brought the artist's total to over $391 million. Other highlights: Edvard Munch's 'Sankthansnatt' ($35.1 million), six Henri Matisse bronzes ($49 million aggregate). The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction followed, led by Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Crowns (Peso Neto)' at $48.3 million, and Maurizio Cattelan's 'America' sold for $12.1 million to an American brand. The contemporary session totaled $178.5 million, double the comparable 2024 sale, with new auction records for Cecily Brown ($9.8 million), Yu Nishimura, and Noah Davis. Sotheby's CEO Charles F. Stewart called the evening "a strong signal for the art market" and "the perfect inauguration for our new home at the Breuer." Guarantees were present on many lots.