Painting by Austria’s Gustav Klimt auctioned off for over $236 million

A portrait by Gustav Klimt was sold by Sotheby’s on Tuesday for $236.4 million, the second-most ever paid for a painting.

The “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” by the Austrian, who died in 1918, was commissioned by the subject’s parents and acquired in 1916 before being seized by Nazi authorities in Vienna following the 1938 Anschluss, according to the Sotheby’s lot listing.

The painting “now stands as the most valuable work of Modern art ever sold at auction,” Sotheby’s said on social media.

It is surpassed only by a painting of Christ titled “Salvator Mundi” that is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and sold for $450.3 million at Christie’s in 2017.

Sotheby’s did not identify the portrait’s buyer.

After World War II, the “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” was returned to the subject’s brother, then passed to a gallery in 1983 and to its most recent owner, Estee Lauder heir Leonard Lauder, in 1985. He died this year, prompting the sale of his art collection.

The portrait alone accounted for about 40% of the total revenue Sotheby’s brought in from Tuesday’s auction, roughly $575.5 million with fees, according to The New York Times. Other lots from the late Lauder’s collection were sold Wednesday.