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Streisand Complains of Having to Sell Her Klimt—Eyes Watering Regret After a $236 Million Sale
Barbra Streisand wishes that she never sold off a Gustav Klimt painting that she had. The 83-year-old reacted on Instagram after a Klimt piece had gone for $236 million at Sotheby’s, posting a page from a book her assistant made of the art that she had loved and sold.
“One of them was this painting of Miss Ria Munk on her Deathbed by Gustav Klimt that I bought in 1969 for $17,000,” Streisand penned, pointing out that she had liquidated it in 1998 after she became more and more intrigued by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Arts & Crafts movement. “Oh how I regret selling her,” she appended, ending with the book’s moral: “You should never sell art you love.”
Barbra Streisand Thinks Twice About Her Sold Klimt as Sotheby’s Hits a Record
She shared a black-and-white photo with the artwork a few days after Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” went under the hammer for $236M
Streisand posted a black-and-white photo of her sitting with the Gustav Klimt painting that she used to have and wrote that she regrets selling it. Her sharing was just two days after Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” was sold by Sotheby’s for an amazing $236 million — the second-highest amount ever at an auction and a record for the artist, ARTnews, The New York Times, and the BBC reported.
Lauder’s long‑loaned Klimt — a 1914–16 portrait of Vienna’s elite — just sold for $236M
Just a few days after Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” was auctioned off for $236M, she published a black-and-white image with the painting
Streisand shared a black-and-white photo of herself sitting with the Gustav Klimt artwork that she used to have and wrote that she wished she hadn’t sold it. Streisand’s tweet was only two days following the sale of Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” at Sotheby’s for an unbelievable $236 million — the second-highest price ever at an auction and a record for the artist, according to ARTnews, The New York Times and the BBC.
Saving Elisabeth Lederer with a Klimt Portrait
Power Symbols — and a life‑saving fake fatherhood scheme — are around the 1914–16 work
“Those characteristics are shown here not only directly but also more indirectly: for example, in the expression of the calm self‑assurance of the person portrayed, as well as in the partially hidden symbols surrounding the central figure,” the National Gallery of Canada comments. In fact, the artwork—and the Lederer family’s association with Klimt—became a rescue Elisabeth’s (Jewish) after the Nazi annexation of Austria. Elisabeth invented a story that Klimt was her father; her mother signing a sworn statement confirming his paternity, and the trick obtaining a document from the regime that gave her effective protection. The painting, at one point, was around $150 million but eventually, it went for $236 million at Sotheby’s.