Klimt’s last masterpiece to fetch $80 million in auction

Gustav Klimt’s last painting, Dame mit Fächer, or Lady with a Fan, will be auctioned later this month and is set to fetch $80 million, CNN reported on Wednesday. The painting will be sold at the highest estimated ever for an artwork at a European auction.

The painting depicts an unidentified woman and according to Sotheby’s auction house, it was one of two paintings found in Klimt’s studio after his death in 1918.

“The beauty and sensuality of the portrait lies in the detail: the flecks of blue and pink that enliven the sitter’s skin, the feathery lines of her eyelashes and the pursed lips that give her face character,” said head of impressionist and modern art evening sales, Thomas Boyd Bowman.

Klimt started the Dame mit Fächer in 1917, showcasing the East Asian features that influenced most of his works.

Klimt’s most known artworks, including the iconic The Kiss, belong to his “Golden Phase,” in which he often depicted gold leaf in his works.

By the time of his death in 1918, the 55-year-old artist was in his “artistic prime and producing some of his most accomplished and experimental works,” said Sotheby’s head of impressionist and modern art, Helena Newman.