Klimt's Lady with a Fan Fetches Record £85.3M at Sotheby's London

On June 27, 2023, Sotheby's London evening auction achieved a remarkable total of £199 million, marking the second-highest figure in its history, following the £222 million from March 2022. The standout piece was Gustav Klimt's "Lady with a Fan," which fetched £85.3 million from a Hong Kong buyer through dealer Patti Wong, establishing a new European auction benchmark. The painting was sold with a hammer price of £74 million, surpassing its £58 million estimate. Additionally, nine artworks surpassed £4 million, including Lucian Freud's "Night Interior" at £9.6 million and Frank Auerbach's "Mornington Crescent" at £5.56 million, a record for the artist. Some pieces, such as those by Edvard Munch and Claude Monet, remained unsold. The "The Now" auction set new records for Arthur Jafa's "Monster" at £140,000 and Michel Majerus's "MoM Block Nr. 57" at £660,000.