Another $100m For Klimts

Four of five paintings by Gustav Klimt that were relinquished by Austria to Maria Altmann this year after a long legal battle are to be auctioned on November 8 at Christie's instead of sold privately, reports the New York Times. In June, the cosmetics executive Ronald S. Lauder bought the best-known of the five, a gold-flecked portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer from 1907, for the Neue Galerie for $135 million. It is the highest price known to have been paid for a painting. The four other works, which are together valued at nearly one hundred million dollars, include Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912, which Christie's estimates could fetch forty to sixty million dollars. Irish Art