Sotheby's to Offer Masterpiece by Gustav Klimt on 2 November 2011 in New York
Sotheby’s 2 November 2011 sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York will feature one of the most accomplished and celebrated landscapes created by Gustav Klimt. Litzlberg am Attersee (Litzlberg on the Attersee) is a dramatic view of the lush environs of Lake Attersee in western Austria, painted with Klimt’s sumptuous palette and jewel-like surface. The painting, which is estimated in excess of $25 million,* follows the sale of Kirche in Cassone (Landschaft mit Zypressen) (Church in Cassone – Landscape with Cypresses), which set an auction record for a landscape by the artist when it achieved £26.9 million ($43.2 million) at Sotheby’s London in February 2010 (est. £12/18 million).
Both paintings, which were originally in the famed collection of Austrian iron magnate Viktor Zuckerkandl and his wife Paula, were stolen after the annexation of Austria in 1938. Both have since been restituted to Georges Jorisch, great-nephew of Viktor, after intensive research revealed that his memory of the works hanging in the family’s home in Purkersdorf was correct. Litzlberg am Attersee was returned to Mr. Jorisch late last week from the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, and a portion of the proceeds from its sale will be donated to that museum for the building of a new extension.
