This fall in New York, Sotheby’s will offer The Leonard A. Lauder Collection, a once-in-a-generation collection of 20th-century masterpieces that personifies the lifelong connoisseurship of one of the greatest collectors and benefactors of the arts in America.
The core of the collection will be offered in a standalone 24-lot evening sale on 18 November led by one of the finest and most intricately conceived of the celebrated full-length portraits Klimt created during Vienna’s early 20th century Golden Age. Depicting the young Elisabeth Lederer, the daughter of Klimt’s greatest patrons, the painting has never before appeared at auction.
Complementing the portrait are two signature square-format landscape paintings of Attersee, Klimt’s beloved summer retreat: Blumenwiese, a jewel-like mosaic of wildflowers from 1908, and Waldhag bei Unterach am Attersee of 1916, painted with the broader, lyrical touch of Klimt’s mature style. These works, too, have never been available at auction.
Also unprecedented is the offering of six iconic sculptures by Henri Matisse. Major works by Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Agnes Martin, Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen, among others, reveal the full sweep of Mr. Lauder’s peerless eye. This exceptional collection, to be unveiled for the first time at Sotheby’s this fall, shines a new light on the full breadth of Mr. Lauder’s far-ranging connoisseurship.
Main Image: Gustav Klimt, Porträt der Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) Estimate in excess of $150 million