Montreal, Canada – A rare 1913 landscape painted in oils by Gustav Klimt – looted by Nazis or Soviets during the Second World War from the family of retired Montreal camera-shop manager Georges Jorisch – fetched $45.4 million, including buyer’s premium, at a Sotheby’s art auction in London yesterday.
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The work, Church in Cassone – Landscape with Cypresses, is 110 centimetres square.
It had been purchased from the artist in 1914 by Jorisch family member Viktor Zuckerkandl and had hung in the home of his sister and Jorisch’s grandmother, Amalie Redlich, in Vienna, from 1928 until at least 1939, Sotheby’s said.
Under a settlement agreement, the Montreal man will receive an undisclosed share of the proceeds.
The sale price far exceeded the Sotheby’s estimate of the possible price, which ranged between $19 million and $29 million.
Insane!