Gustav Klimt's Late Work 'Portrait of Riza Yang' Sold for 44.1 Billion KRW at Auction

Missing Since 1925
"Auction Items Submitted Through Fair Procedures"

A portrait titled 'Portrait of Riezer' left by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt in his later years was sold at auction for 44.1 billion KRW.

Auction scene of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of Riza Yang'.
[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

On the 24th (local time), major foreign media including AFP reported that this painting, created by Klimt in 1917, one year before his death, was sold for 30 million euros (approximately 44.1 billion KRW) at an auction held at the Im Kinsky auction house in Vienna, Austria. The painting is a portrait of a woman from the wealthy Riezer family, a business family in Vienna, Austria. The painting is unfinished and does not bear Klimt's signature. Furthermore, it is unclear which woman from the Riezer family is depicted. The woman in the painting is wearing a floral-patterned top and a turquoise dress. She has fair skin and dark curly hair. It is said that the subject visited Klimt's studio nine times to have the portrait painted.

The original owners of the painting, the Riezer family, were Jewish. Because of this, they were persecuted during the Nazi regime. Klimt died in 1918, and with many members of the Riezer family either persecuted or having left Austria, there were insufficient clues to explain where the painting, which was in Klimt's studio at the time of its creation, was kept. The painting was exhibited in 1925, but only black-and-white photographic evidence remains, and its whereabouts became unknown. From the mid-1960s, it was passed down as the property of an Austrian family and was said to have hung in the parlor of a villa near Vienna. The recent auction revealed the painting's whereabouts clearly for the first time in about 100 years.

The auction company handling the work did not disclose the identity of the painting's owner but stated, "The auction was conducted last year with the agreement of a fair resolution made between the legal heirs of the Riezer family and the current owner." However, some argue that since the painting's provenance has not been fully clarified, the possibility that it was a Nazi-looted artwork should be considered. This is due to the Washington Principles, an international agreement to return artworks stolen by the Nazis to the descendants of the artists. Nevertheless, so far, no evidence of plunder, theft, or illegal seizure has been found in the painting itself.

Previously, another portrait painted by Klimt, 'Woman with a Fan,' was sold at auction last year for 85.3 million pounds (approximately 146 billion KRW), setting a record for the highest auction price for an artwork in Europe.