Carol Vogel releases Sotheby’s news that they’ve got another Klimt to follow on the success of this week’s restituted work. Despite the bad manners of the buyer gloating in the press that he’d offered the owners a higher price than paid at auction (shouldn’t he be pleased more than piqued?) the discovery of a previously unknown work ought to generate interest:
Experts at Sotheby’s are convinced it is a Klimt and plan to sell it on Feb. 8 in London, where it is expected to bring around $10 million to $13 million.
“This is the kind of thing that happens in the world of old masters paintings, but it’s rare when we can claim a discovery,” said Helena Newman, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department in London. The painting, which depicts the shoreline of a lake with two birch trees to the right of it, is in the square format that both Klimt and Monet used during those years. “1901 was just at the beginning of his square format and of his painting landscapes,” Ms. Newman said. It was executed while Klimt was vacationing on the Attersee in the Viennese countryside, where he spent every summer from 1899 until his death and where he produced many of his most famous works.
Inside Art: An Unknown Klimt (New York Times)
