Media mogul Oprah Winfrey reportedly sold a Gustav Klimt painting she bought in 2006 for $150 million last year, according to an insider with knowledge of the deal.
“Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II” was obtained by Ms. Winfrey at Christie’s in New York for $87.9 million, but the Austrian artist’s work is now headed to China, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
“Klimt is on the list of some people,” art adviser Grace Rong Li told Bloomberg.
A source told the website that Ms. Winfrey, whose net worth is estimated to be $2.9 billion, was initially approached by art dealer Larry Gagosian after he lined up a potential buyer. A deal for the piece, which was on loan to Neue Galerie in New York City from Sept. 22 to Jan. 16, was finalized over the summer.
Mr. Gagosian’s representatives did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment.
Bloch-Bauer was Klimt’s patron and the wife of a wealthy industrialist in Vienna.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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