Estimated Price in the Millions

Klimt’s “Litzlbergkeller” Up for Auction in New York

Detail from the painting “Litzlbergkeller,” reproduction by Hörmandinger(Bild: Marion Hörmandinger)

Once again, a painting by Gustav Klimt—one he painted at Lake Attersee—is set to go under the hammer. At the Christie’s auction in New York on November 17, “Litzlbergkeller” is expected to fetch a double-digit million amount. The painting, which has long been on loan to the Leopold Museum in Vienna, was even on display in Schörfling in 2019.

Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) loved Lake Attersee; the iconic Art Nouveau artist spent many years here enjoying his summer retreats. The paintings he created here are highly prized today.

A year ago, Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” broke the artist’s auction record at a Sotheby’s auction in New York, selling for $236 million (approximately 210 million euros today), and became the second-most-expensive work ever sold at auction.

Next Auction on November 17
A sum in the high double-digit millions is now expected on November 17 at Christie’s, where the landscape painting “Litzlbergkeller” (1915/16) will go under the hammer. The upper estimate is 80 million U.S. dollars (71.5 million euros).

Local Klimt fans are quite familiar with the work, which comes from an anonymous private collection: It was on loan to the Leopold Museum in Vienna for several years.

Klimt spent his vacation at Lake Attersee
The current owners purchased the work at auction in 1997 from the estate of Serge Sabarsky, a collector and co-founder of the “Neue Galerie” in New York. The price at the time—$14.7 million—was considered a record; a year later, the 110.5 x 110.5-centimeter work was transferred to Vienna on permanent loan.

The work, which Klimt began at his summer retreat and later completed in his Vienna studio, was commissioned by the banker Otto Primavesi. In 2019, the painting was exhibited at the Klimt Center in Schörfling am Attersee—just a few kilometers from Litzlberg.