Leonard Lauder's $400 Million Legacy Comes Up For Auction

For 1 apical Sotheby’s executive, this year's auction play feels for illustration destiny.

“This is nan play I’ve waited for my full life,” Lisa Dennison told NBC News, opinionated adjacent nan twinkling Gustav Klimt canvases soon to beryllium auctioned.

“To beryllium successful this building and to person nan collections we person this play — it’s everything,” said Dennison, nan auction house's executive vice president and president of nan Americas.

At nan halfway of it each is 1 of nan astir anticipated creation income successful nan past respective years: nan backstage creation postulation of Leonard Lauder, nan philanthropist, cosmetics heir and legendary collector who helped style American museums — overmuch for illustration his mother, Estée Lauder, shaped beauty civilization arsenic a elephantine of cosmetics.

The useful will beryllium auctioned disconnected opening connected Tuesday.

Leonard Lauder, who grew up during nan Great Depression, died successful June astatine 92, leaving down immoderate of nan astir prized artworks successful nan world. The item of nan 55 useful that will beryllium auctioned disconnected is simply a coating that could shatter records: a full-length image by Austrian maestro Gustav Klimt, “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” estimated to waste for much than $150 million.

The image is historical not only for nan precocious acquisition value it is expected to bring, but for its rarity. There are only 2 full-length portraits by Klimt near successful backstage hands. One is successful a backstage postulation that whitethorn ne'er travel connected nan market; nan different is this one.

"Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer" ("Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer"), by Gustav Klimt, astatine Sotheby's successful New York.Courtesy Sotheby's

Painted betwixt 1914 and 1916, nan image shows Lederer draped successful an imperial Chinese robe, surrounded by Asian motifs and patterns. “He elevates her to almost mythical stature,” Dennison said. “The sensitivity of nan look and nan richness of nan clothes — it’s regal, transcendent and profoundly modern.”

Emily Braun, Lauder’s longtime curator, has held a front-row spot to 1 of nan astir singular creation collectors of our time. Braun said Lauder had a earthy eye, “but he knew he had to study more, to look, perpetually and to learn.”

That thrust began pinch him collecting Art Deco edifice postcards arsenic a young boy successful Miami, earlier he moved to wartime propaganda posters and yet to priceless paintings amassed passim his lifetime. Lauder donated his full postulation of much than 100,000 postcards to nan Museum of Fine Arts successful Boston.

At nan Whitney Museum of American Art, wherever he started arsenic a personnel and roseate to chairman, Lauder helped nan depository get 1,000 useful — astir one-tenth of its full collection.

“He cared profoundly astir value and legacy,” Dennison said. “If he believed successful something, he wanted it to beryllium nan champion of nan best.” (Lauder was erstwhile quoted arsenic saying: “Only bargain nan best, don’t beryllium a bottommost fisherman.”)

Leonard Lauder astatine nan re-opening statement for Bergdorf Goodman's aft renovations and nan installation of escalators successful 1983.Tony Palmieri / WWD / Penske Media via Getty Images file

Sotheby’s took complete nan erstwhile Whitney Museum connected Manhattan's Madison Avenue and, since its expansive opening connected Nov. 8, nan lines person been snaking astir nan artifact for a chance to spot uncommon artworks astir to beryllium sold to nan highest bidders from each complete nan world.

Christina Dickerson, a San Francisco resident, comes from an art-collecting family and wanted to spot nan useful successful person.

“I don’t cognize galore group who could amass a postulation for illustration this anymore, we’re fortunate to spot it successful 1 place, nan sad portion is it’s going to spell each complete nan place, and I genuinely dream immoderate museums prime it up, truthful nan wide nationalist tin get to spot nan creation again,” Dickerson said.

It remains to beryllium seen whether aliases not collectors travel and walk apical dollar for these uncommon pieces. The creation marketplace has been successful a slump recently. Sales successful nan world high-end creation marketplace declined 12% successful 2024, according to nan Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report.

Lauder whitethorn beryllium champion known for donating his $1 cardinal postulation of Cubist masterpieces to nan Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Braun said Lauder’s relationship to Klimt was aesthetic, intelligence and profoundly personal. Lauder, whose family had Hungarian and Czech heritage, started to cod Klimt’s useful successful nan 1970s. The paintings carried echoes of tragedy, Braun said: Lauder’s wife, Evelyn, fled Vienna arsenic a kid because she was Jewish, truthful nan painting's communicative “had a multilayered meaning for him.”

Gustav Klimt, "Waldabhang bei Unterach americium Attersee" ("Forest Slope successful Unterach connected nan Attersee").Sotheby's

For decades, nan Elisabeth Lederer coating hung supra his eating room table.

“People were terrified personification mightiness backmost a chair into it ... but it was ne'er going to happen,” Braun said.

Braun would not uncover really overmuch Lauder paid for nan masterpiece erstwhile he purchased it successful 1985.

In summation to nan “Elisabeth Lederer,” 2 much Klimt majestic landscapes are for sale, including “Blooming Meadow,” estimated astatine $80 million, created successful 1906 astatine nan tallness of his career, and “Forest Slope successful Unteach,” estimated astatine $70 million, painted successful 1917. The second shows a dense wood overlooking nan Attersee reservoir successful Austria.

All 3 useful stay successful pristine information — miraculous survivors of persecution, war, transit and time.

Sotheby’s will connection 24 useful from Lauder’s postulation successful Tuesday's sale, pinch an further 30 pieces hitting nan auction artifact connected Wednesday.

In summation to nan Klimts, location will beryllium glistening Matisse bronzes, Agnes Martin abstractions and a uncommon Edvard Munch.

“For Leonard, collecting was ne'er astir ownership,” Dennison said. “It was astir preservation, acquisition and beauty — and this waste is nan eventual look of that.”