Gustav Klimt Oil

Gustav Klimt Oil

Gustav Klimt Most Expensive Painting

He was big in the '60s, when his erotic imagery and eye-bedazzling surfaces struck a chord with the free-love and psychedelic-inspired counterculture. Then, the picture on the dormitory wall would have been Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss."

As the '60s waned, Klimt did too. His art rejoined the side galleries of modernism, eclipsed by the stars of the French and New York schools. The Viennese modernists — Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oscar Kokoschka and others — were too exotic for popular consumption, like hothouse orchids bred for connoisseurs.

That is about to change. With the exchange of an extraordinary sum, Klimt has been catapulted to the top of the heap, a sudden must-see on the New York art circuit. His "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," a shimmering, gold-flecked portrait of a Viennese aristocrat (and Klimt's reputed lover), went on view at the few galleries.

Cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder, founder of the five-year-old museum, paid $135 million, making it the most expensive oil painting ever purchased. No other artist — not Van Gogh, nor Picasso, nor Rubens — can match that. The prior top money-getter was Picasso's "Boy With a Pipe," which sold for $104.1 million in 2004.

While the market is far from a perfect measure of artistic quality (inflation drives up prices, and most of the world's museum-owned masterpieces never come up for sale), huge crowds are expected at the usually quiet Neue Galerie this weekend. And most will not be disappointed. This really is a masterpiece.

In 1903 the artist visited Ravenna, in Italy, where he was struck by the sixth-century Byzantine mosaic interior of the basilica of San Vitale. The glinting gold glass tiles embedded with precious and semi-precious gems must have seemed like a preview of heaven's glory to the parishioners. The Klimt portraits influenced by San Vitale look more like previews of the glories of sex. Among these, the most famous, since her restitution, is "Adele Bloch-Bauer I". The sitter's face emerges from a gorgeous, swirling, gold-painted mosaic. She is both a beauty and a seductress. But in a photograph of her taken three years later, Mrs Bloch-Bauer seems neither beautiful nor sexy. Maybe the affair, if there was one, was over by then; it certainly must have been by 1912 when Klimt painted "Adele Bloch-Bauer II" which packs none of the first portrait's wallop.

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Should I donate my Egon Schiele painting or Sell it?

I have recently had a painting that I own identified as an Egon Schiele 1912 oil painting. The frame appears to be a Viennese secessionist frame designed by Josef Hoffmann that has previously only been known to exist as a sketch. It is quite valuable. I do not intend on passing it down in my family as it was given to me by a friend who has long since passed away, and who had no other living relatives. I could put this onto the open auction market, as this man was a close friend and contemporary of Gustav Klimt whose painting of Adele Bloch Bauer sold for a record shattering $135 million, and make a handsome profit. On the other hand I fear that it could go into private ownership and never see the light of day again. I enjoy having it, but when this hits the papers there will likely be all manner of speculation about it. I am being asked to keep an open mind about letting it go into a traveling exhibition. If it were you, would you just sell it to anyone, or donate it to the world?

You have a great international treasure. It is not necessary that you only have a "sell it and it disappears".or "donate it and receive nothing." If you are well off this "donation" could generate a considerable tax offset. You can and should control to some degree its fate. You can explore the possibility of having a dealer offer it to those institutions which please you personally by their service to the community, or to places whose collections in this area of art would be enhanced by this acquisition. You can also explore the possibility of a long term loan somewhere. It could then be studied by the art scholars and probably receive some restoration, which it likely needs in any case. Almost any firm large enough to handle an item of this magnitude, should be able to advise you fairly, if you pay attention to whats said. You may require legal assistance with this I'm almost certain. I personally would talk to no one without an attorney present. You seem to have a fair bit of knowledge about this object, study, acquire more. I saw the Klimt's in Los Angeles a couple of times, I look forward to a time when I might see your Schiel.