'Lost' Gustav Klimt painting to be auctioned
By Bethany Bell
A painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt that was believed lost for the past 100 years, is to be auctioned in Vienna.
There are many unanswered questions about the unfinished painting, Portrait of Fraulein Lieser, which Klimt began in 1917 – a year before his death.
There are also debates about who the woman in the picture is, and what happened to the painting during the Nazi era.
The painting’s value is estimated at up to €50m ($53m; £42m), although it may fetch a higher price.
It is believed to depict one of the daughters of either Adolf or Justus Lieser, who were brothers from a wealthy family of Jewish industrialists.
Art historians Thomas Natter and Alfred Weidinger say the painting is of Margarethe Constance Lieser, the daughter of Adolf Lieser.
But the im Kinsky auction house in Vienna, which is auctioning the artwork, suggests the painting could also depict one of the two daughters of Justus Lieser and his wife Henriette.
Henriette, who was known as Lilly, was a patron of modern art. She was deported by the Nazis and died in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust.
