Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and founding Vienna Secession member who helped define Art Nouveau with gilded, mythic works.
A major group of modern masterpieces is to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in London, with estimates surpassing £150 million. The sale, drawn from the Lewis collection, features Klimt, Schiele, Modigliani, Bacon, Matisse and more, and could mark the highest-value week in the city’s auction history. Separate fraud cases in the US have led to guilty pleas over forged art, underscoring ongoing market risks.