Sotheby's has won the consignment of late Estée Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder’s art collection valued at US$400 million, securing what will be the biggest sale of the year for its debut at new global headquarters in the Breuer building – a brutalist landmark formerly home to the Whitney Museum of American Art, where Lauder was its greatest benefactor.
Headlining the group of 55 works is Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16), estimated at over US$150 million and poised to set a new auction record for the artist. One of only two full-length Klimt portraits remaining in private hands, the work will anchor a standalone 24-lot evening sale on 18 November.
Leonard Lauder | Photographed by Weston Wells for WWD
Sotheby’s new global headquarters in New York’s Breuer building
Gustav Klimt | Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16)
Estimate: Over US$150,000,000 | Sotheby's New York | 28 November 2025
The star lot aside, the sale features two of Klimt’s signature square-format Attersee landscapes, both making their auction debuts. Blooming Meadow (1908), painted at the height of Klimt's career, carries an estimate of US$80 to 100 million; Forest Slope in Unterach on the Attersee (1916), created during the artist's final stay at his beloved summer retreat in Austria, is expected to sell for US$70 to 90 million.
Other highlights include six Matisse bronzes collectively estimated at US$30 million and one of Edvard Munch's Midsummer Night paintings, circa 1901-03, valued at more than US$20 million.
Gustav Klimt | Blooming Meadow (1908)
Estimate: US$80,000,000 - 100,000,000 | Sotheby's New York | 28 November 2025
Gustav Klimt | Blooming Meadow (1916)
Estimate: US$70,000,000 - 90,000,000 | Sotheby's New York | 28 November 2025
Edvard Munch | Sankthansnatt Johannisnacht (Mittsommernacht) (St. John’s Night)
Estimate: US$20,000,00 | Sotheby's New York | 28 November 2025
The collection comes to market following Lauder's death in June 2025 at age 92, at a time when trophy-level consignments have thinned. Often described as “the last of the great American art patrons,” he was the sole heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire alongside his brother, Ronald. Over six decades, he helped grow the company from a small, single-brand business into a global leader in luxury beauty through innovative approaches.
To secure the estate, Sotheby’s offered a financial guarantee – an assurance of minimum proceeds regardless of the auction’s outcome. While the house declined to say whether it would share the risk with third-party guarantors, it bears the loss if works sell below the guaranteed price or fail to find buyers.
Rival Christie’s, meanwhile, has also made a strong push for top-tier material this season. Among its headline consignments is a Mark Rothko yellow-and-orange canvas from the Weis collection, estimated at US$50 million as part of a US$180 million trove. The house also landed 20 works from the estate of casino magnate Elaine Wynn, including pieces by Richard Diebenkorn, J.M.W. Turner, and Joan Mitchell, expected to bring in a combined US$75 million.
For Sotheby’s, one decisive advantage may have been its new headquarters in the Breuer building – a Modernist icon the Whitney sold to the auction house for a reported US$100 million in 2023. Lauder had deep, longstanding ties to the institution, having served as trustee, president, and chairman over several decades, while donating millions in cash and art, including nearly 50 works by Jasper Johns. His US$131 million gift in 2008 remains the largest in the museum’s history.
Gustav Klimt | Lady with a Fan (1917) | Sold: £85,305,800 (US$108 million), Sotheby's London, 2023 (Auction record for the artist)
Gustav Klimt | Birch Forest (1903) | Sold: US$104,585,000, Christie’s New York, 2022 (from the Paul Allen collection)
The Klimt portrait ranks as the most expensive single lot of the fall season across any major auction house. Works by the Austrian master have long commanded top prices among serious collectors. Sotheby’s currently holds the auction record with Lady with a Fan (1917-18), which fetched US$109 million in London in 2023. A year earlier, Christie’s achieved US$104.6 million for Birch Forest (1903), sold from the Paul Allen collection.
Private sales, however, have soared even higher. In 2006, Lauder’s brother, Ronald, paid a then-record US$135 million for Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), known as “Golden Adele.” Another work, Water Serpents II (1904-07), was purchased by Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for US$183 million in 2012 and sold to an Asian collector for US$170 million in 2015.
Gustav Klimt | Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) | Sold to Ronald Lauder for US$135 million in 2016
Gustav Klimt | Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16) | Estimate: Over US$150 million, Sotheby’s New York, 18 November 2025
Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, recently lent to the National Gallery of Canada, is among Klimt’s most intricately conceived full-length portraits.
Never before offered at auction, the work depicts 20-year-old Elisabeth Lederer, whose family was second only to the Rothschilds in Viennese wealth during the city's Golden Age. The Lederers were Klimt’s foremost patrons, amassing the largest private collection of his work, including portraits of three generations of women in the family.
The only other full-length Klimt portrait still in private hands, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912), was sold privately by Oprah Winfrey to a Chinese collector for US$150 million in 2017.
Gustav Klimt | Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) | Sold for US$150 million by Oprah Winfrey to a Chinese collector in 2017