Sotheby's to Sell $400M Lauder Collection Including Klimt Masterpiece

Sotheby's has won the competition to auction the collection of Leonard A. Lauder, the Estée Lauder heir and philanthropist who died in June 2025 at age 92. The evening sale on November 18, 2025, will feature 24 lots with a total estimate exceeding $400 million, marking the inaugural auction at Sotheby's new headquarters in the Breuer Building, formerly the Whitney Museum. A second sale follows on November 19. The centerpiece is Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914), estimated above $150 million and never before at auction, potentially breaking Klimt's record of $109 million set in 2023. Other highlights include two square-format Klimt landscapes: Blumenwiese (1908) estimated over $80 million and Waldhag bei Unterach am Attersee (1916) estimated over $70 million. Six bronze sculptures by Henri Matisse, also fresh to market, carry a $30 million estimate. Additional works by Edvard Munch (over $20 million), Pablo Picasso, Agnes Martin (The Garden estimated over $10 million, a record for the artist), Claes Oldenburg, and Coosje van Bruggen are included. Lauder, who built the world's foremost private Cubist collection donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013, was the largest benefactor of the Whitney Museum, donating $131 million in 2008.