A European record was broken: the painting by the most famous Austrian artist Gustav Klimt “Lady with a Fan” was sold on Tuesday in London for 74 million pounds (over 86 million euros), surpassing the estimate of the auction house Sotheby’s. , which organized the sale, News.ro reports.

Lady with a Fan, a late work by the artist who died in 1918, thus overthrew the previous European record, set in February 2010 by Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture Man Walking And, which sold for £65m at the time. , also at Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s, which organized the sale, described the work, one of Klimt’s (1862-1918) last paintings, as “not only the star of the summer auction season in London, but also one of the most beautiful and valuable ever offered in Europe. “.

After adding costs related to the sale, the winner, whose identity has not been disclosed, will have to pay 85.3 million pounds (almost 99 million euros).

Gustav Klimt began painting in 1917, a year before his death in 1918 at the age of 55.

The painting depicts an unidentified brunette woman wearing a loose dress and bare shoulders, holding a fan in her hand. Behind her are motifs and colors that are often found in the artist’s works, such as blue-green birds and flowers on a golden-yellow background.

According to Sotheby’s, the painting has been in a private collection since 1994. It once belonged to the Viennese industrialist Erwin Boller, then to his brother and his widow until the 1940s.

Much later, in 1988, it also belonged to the American businessman and philanthropist Wendell Cherry.

“Breathing with freedom and spontaneity, (the portrait) reflects Klimt’s joy in painting and celebrating beauty in its purest form,” the auction house said.

Klimt’s Birch Forest was sold for $104.5 million at a Christie’s auction in New York last year from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s art collection.