Henriette was a major patron of the avant-garde in Vienna, but was deported and later murdered in Auschwitz sometime before 1943. Luckily, her daughters were able to escape the war. Annie became a renowned dancer and Helene a successful economist. The painting’s whereabouts had been generally unknown since the beginning of WWII, but it has since been found to have discreetly changed hands three times since the 1960s.
In the end, the impressively well-preserved painting was sold for €32 million to a buyer from Hong Kong. The portrait was estimated to sell for €30–€50 million and Im Kinsky’s head of modern art, Claudia Mörth-Gasser, gave a statement saying, “of course we are delighted at the result, but not really surprised.” Despite being on the lower end of the appraisal, the sale still set a record for any auction house in Austria. Before the Klimt auction, Im Kinsky’s highest-sale had been an Egon Schiele piece which sold for $6.1 million in 2010.
