Kirche in Cassone sells for a World Record £27m

Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art sale this week hit the headlines for the sale of L'Homme qui Marche - an Alberto Giacometti sculpture which became the most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction when it left the stage for £65m.

Whilst this sale largely eclipsed the rest of the auction, there was another world record set: Gustav Klimt's great work Kirche in Cassone (Church in Cassone).

The shimmering effect of the light on roofs and water had captured the attention of bidders, and the price surged past its £12m-18m estimate to bring £26m.

Gustav Klimt Kirche in Cassone
Gustav Klimt's Kirche in Cassone
(Click to enlarge)

That is a world record for a landscape painting by the popular artist, who died in 1918, though his Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II sold for $88m (£55.5m) at Christie's in 2006.

In the same sale Cézanne's characteristic still life Pichet et Fruits sur une Table sold on target for £11.8m.

 

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