Klimt Restores Confidence at New York Sales

New York’s marquee November auctions closed out a fall season that had already moved through Hong Kong, London and Paris, and the finale’s results boosted confidence in an art market recovery after years of stagnation. Across four evening sessions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the week delivered a combined sales total in excess of $1.8bn, which represents an improvement of about 80% over the totals from last year’s equivalent sales.

Sotheby's auctioneer Oliver Barker sells Gustav Klimt's Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer on November 18, 2025. Photo: Sotheby’s.

Klimt Portrait Dazzles Bidders at Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s opened its New York season in the newly renovated Breuer Building with a focused 24-lot sale from the Leonard A. Lauder collection that raked in $527.4m (all prices include fees) with a white-glove result. The evening was defined by a single magnificent work: Gustav Klimt’s Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer, 1914–16, which sold for $236.3m after an extended contest between multiple phone bidders. Estimated on request in the region of $150m, the portrait is now the second-most expensive painting ever sold at auction and the most valuable work sold in Sotheby’s history. The sale also reset the auction record for Klimt by surpassing the £85.3m ($108.5m) paid in London in 2023 for Dame mit Fächer.

Gustav Klimt, Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer), 1914-1916, oil on canvas

The painting’s market debut was central to the intensity of competition. Retained first by the Lederer family and later by Lauder, it is one of Klimt’s final fully realized portraits and belongs to a sequence of commissions for three generations of Lederer women, the artist’s most important patrons. Its survival is notable, given that much of the family’s Klimt collection was confiscated during the Second World War and later destroyed. The canvas also reflects Klimt’s mature style, marked by its synthesis of Viennese portraiture, East Asian motifs and increasingly complex surface patterning. Its imposing scale and strong provenance positioned it at the very top of the artist’s market, and the bidding’s rise in $5m increments set the enthusiastic tone for the remainder of the auction.

Lauder’s holdings included three additional Klimts, led by the landscape Blumenwiese at $86m and Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee at $68.3m, as well as two drawings at $520,700 and $482,600. Edvard Munch’s Sankthansnatt (Midsummer Night) achieved $35.1m with fees, and Agnes Martin’s The Garden, 1964, came in at $17.6m.

Following the Lauder session, Sotheby’s continued its opening-night program with The Now and Contemporary Evening Sale, which realized $178.5m across 44 lots. The total fell within the presale guidance of $143.6m to $198.2m. Forty-two works sold, while two higher-value figurative paintings by Barkley Hendricks and Kerry James Marshall did not find buyers.

Jean-Michel Basquiat delivered the top contemporary price with Crowns (Peso Neto) from 1981, which sold for $48.3m, coming in above its $35m to $45m estimate band when accounting for fees. Cecily Brown’s High Society was the next major highlight of the session, achieving $9.8m and setting a new benchmark for the artist.

Maurizio Cattelan’s America from 2016, a fully functional 18-karat gold toilet, was offered on a valuation tied to its gold content. Sotheby’s described it as the only remaining example after another edition was stolen from Blenheim Palace in 2019. However, it drew little competition and sold on a single bid at $10m. The buyer was later identified as Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

Frida Kahlo Reaches Dreamy Valuation

Frida Kahlo, El sueño (La cama), Executed in 1940, oil on canvas. Photo: Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s concluded the New York season on November 20 with three consecutive evening sessions that reached a combined $304.5m across 66 lots. The night brought together three seller groups: the Cindy and Jay Pritzker estate, the Exquisite Corpus Surrealism collection and a multiple-owner Modern art sale.

The Pritzker group opened with $109.5m in total turnover. Vincent van Gogh’s Parisian Novels (Romans parisiens) from 1887 led works from the collection at $63m, after attracting a fervor of bids. A related Van Gogh drawing achieved $2.9m, and Henri Matisse’s Léda et le cygne brought $10.4m.

The Exquisite Corpus sale of iconic Surrealist works followed with a sales total of $98m. Frida Kahlo’s El sueño (La cama) from 1940 hammered at $47m, which translated to $54.66m after fees. The result simultaneously set a new auction record for Kahlo, for any Latin American artist and for any female artist. The Surrealist segment likewise delivered new auction records for Hans Bellmer, Dorothea Tanning and Wolfgang Paalen.

The final Modern session realized $96.9m led by René Magritte’s Le Jockey perdu which sold for $12.34m, and Claude Monet’s Vue de Rouen depuis la côte Sainte Catherine which reached $7.37m.

Christie’s Improves on 2024 Results

Christie’s auctioneer Yü-Ge Wang sells Christopher Wool's Untitled (Riot), 1990, at the 21st Century evening sale on February 19, 2025. Photo: Christie's

Earlier in the week, Christie’s had opened the New York auctions with a two-part 20th Century evening sale on November 17 that totaled $690m, a 42 percent increase on last year. Eighty lots were offered, 59 carrying guarantees, and the sell-through rate reached 94 percent after one withdrawal and three buy-ins.

Material from the collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis totaled $218m in turnover. Mark Rothko’s No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) led the lots with a $62.16m sale price, followed by Pablo Picasso’s La Lecture (Marie Thérèse) at $45.49m and Henri Matisse’s Figure et bouquet (Tête ocre) at $32.26m.

Claude Monet’s Nymphéas reached $45.49m. Despite belonging to the 1907 vertical waterlily series exhibited at Durand-Ruel in 1909, it required fees to inch above its low estimate of $40m. Marc Chagall’s Le songe du Roi David outperformed expectations by bringing in $26.51m against a high estimate of  only $12m. The painting is a large-scale composition from the artist’s Biblical cycle in which he fused Old Testament narratives with the chromatic language of his mature style. David Hockney’s Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy also performed well, realizing a final sale price of $44.34m. The result was aided by its status as the first and most celebrated of his double portraits and its extensive exhibition history across major retrospectives.

David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968, Acrylic on canvas. Photo: Christie’s

Two days later on November 19, Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale realized $123.5m, surpassing last year’s equivalent total of $106.5m and landing comfortably within its $87m to $127m presale range. Forty-four of 45 lots sold, producing a two percent buy-in rate. Thirty-three lots carried guarantees.

The top price came from Christopher Wool’s Untitled (RIOT) from 1990 at $19.84m. Andy Warhol’s The Last Supper achieved $8.13m, and Kerry James Marshall’s Portrait of John Punch (Angry Black Man 1646) reached $7.15m, both within estimate.

The opening section from Gale Neeson and Stefan Edlis contributed $49.2m, including Diego Giacometti’s Promenade des amis console at $3.9m and Richard Prince’s Untitled (Cowboy) at $3.3m. New artist records were set for Olga de Amaral, Firelei Báez and Joan Brown. The only work that did not sell was Cecily Brown’s It’s Not Yesterday Anymore, bought in at $3m.

Across both major houses, the November 2025 auctions in New York delivered confidence-inducing performances on the strength of star artists drawn from major named collections. Attention now turns to Art Basel Miami in December, which will produce the last flickers of market information going into year-end.

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