Klimt's 'Lady With a Fan' Shatters European Auction Record

Gustav Klimt's late-life masterpiece, "Dame mit Fächer" (Lady with a Fan), has set a new record for the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe, selling for £85.3 million ($108.4 million) at Sotheby's in London. The painting, completed shortly before Klimt's death in 1918, depicts an unidentified woman against a backdrop of dragons and lotus blossoms. The buyer, art adviser Patti Wong, acting on behalf of a Hong Kong collector, secured the artwork after a 10-minute bidding war. The sale price exceeded the presale estimate and surpassed the previous European auction record set in 2010 for Alberto Giacometti's sculpture "Walking Man I."