Gustav Klimt's Lady with a Fan breaks European record with $108.4 million price tag

The painting was the last portrait the Austrian artist completed before his death in 1918

Dame Mit Facher (Lady With A Fan), the last portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, which was sold to Hong Kong collector for 108.4 million dollars at the London auction. Photo: Sotheby's

A late-life masterpiece by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold for £85.3 million ($108.4 million), making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe.

Dame mit Facher or Lady with a Fan sold to a buyer in the room at Sotheby's in London on Tuesday after a 10-minute bidding war for a hammer price of £74 million ($94.35 million). The higher final figure includes a charge on top of the sale price known as the buyer's premium.

The sale price well exceeded the pre-sale estimate of £65 million or $80 million.

It also beat the previous European auction record of $104.3 million – £65 million at the time – including buyer's premium, paid for Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture Walking Man I at Sotheby’s in 2010. Previously, the most expensive painting auctioned in Europe was Claude Monet’s Le Bassin Aux Nympheas, which fetched $80.4 million at a Christie’s sale in 2008.

The piece sold Tuesday was the last portrait Klimt completed before his death in 1918. The painting shows an unidentified woman against a resplendent, China-influenced backdrop of dragons and lotus blossoms.

It was last sold in 1994, going for $11.6 million at an auction in New York.

Sotheby's said the buyer was art advisor Patti Wong, acting on behalf of a Hong Kong collector.

Famed for his bold, daring art nouveau paintings, Klimt was a key figure in artistic modernism at the start of the 20th century. His work has fetched some of the highest prices for any artist.

Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II sold at a New York auction in 2006 for $87.9 million, and his landscape Birch Forest sold at Christie's in New York last year for $104.6 million.

Two more of his portraits are reported to have sold privately for more than $100 million.

The world auction record for an artwork is the $450.3 million paid in 2017 for Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, though some experts dispute whether the panting of Jesus Christ is wholly the work of the Renaissance master.