Lost Gustav Klimt painting sells for €30m at auction in Vienna

This article was first published by The Guardian.

A painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt that was considered lost for 100 years has sold for €30m (£26m) at an auction in Vienna.

Entitled Portrait of Fräulein Lieser, the unfinished picture was painted in the spring of 1917, when Klimt was one of the most celebrated portraitists in Europe, and a year before his death.

Until the Viennese auction house im Kinsky announced at a press conference in January that the portrait had been re-discovered in a private collection, only a black-and-white photograph of the painting was known.

The artwork’s sudden re-emergence, coupled with an intriguing backstory, built up considerable buzz around the painting.