
Who’s the hottest artist on the private market? According to Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina it’s Gustav Klimt who has seen two of his works sell on the private market recently for $320m.
Here’s what Kazakina reported:
The billionaire entrepreneur sold a Gustav Klimt painting for $150 million in one of the biggest private art deals of 2016, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction. Winfrey, chief executive officer of the television channel Oprah Winfrey Network, bought “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II” for $87.9 million in 2006 at Christie’s in New York — still an auction record for the Austrian artist. Since then, its value has risen about 71 percent.
The work is the second major Klimt that changed hands since the art market started contracting. Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev sold “Water Serpents II” (1904-1907) privately for $170 million in November 2015, according to Sandy Heller, Rybolovlev’s art consultant. Both Klimts went to Asia, where booming wealth has built a growing network of collectors eager to anchor their art holdings with Western masterpieces.
Oprah Said to Snag $150 Million Selling Klimt to Chinese Buyer (Bloomberg)