A woman who fought a court battle to win back five valuable paintings by Gustav Klimt taken from her heirs by the Nazis will sell the remaining works from her collection after the first fetched a record $135 million.
US-based Maria Altmann, niece of the Bloch-Bauers who originally owned the paintings, has hired Christie's to handle the sale of works with a combined value estimated at between $100-150 million (€78 - €116m), the auctioneer said today.
The collection hit the headlines in June when it was announced that a 1907 portrait by the Austrian artist had been purchased by cosmetics magnate Ronald S Lauder for $135 million (€105m), the highest amount ever paid for a painting.
The portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist, is considered one of Klimt's masterpieces, and was the most valuable of the five paintings owned by Altmann, experts say.
A spokeswoman for Christie's in London said the sale of the four remaining paintings would probably be private, as opposed to an open auction.