If I were to ask if you’ve heard of Estée Lauder, you will instantly know the beauty products, perhaps not the person. If I ask the same question about Leonard A. Lauder (1933-2025) you’re likely to struggle to answer.
That is until last Tuesday evening (Nov 18th 2025) when he achieved instant fame when his Gustav Klimt masterpiece painting sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York – thus setting a new auction record for the turn of the 20th-century Viennese artist, and simultaneously making it now the most expensive work ever sold at Sotheby’s and the most expensive Modern artwork ever sold at auction.
The family business that brought the wealth to enable Leonard Lauder to build one of the finest art collections of the late 20th century came from the world famous family business, founded by his mother in 1946.
Born Josephine Esther Mentzer in 1908, Estée Lauder was raised in Queens, New York, by her mother Rose, who was born in Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary, and her father Max, who was born in Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia). The name Estée was a variation of her childhood nickname, Esty.
Estée first became interested in beauty as a young girl, when her uncle, a chemist, came to live with her family. He created velvety skin creams at home—first in the kitchen, then in a stable behind the family house, which they turned into a laboratory. From her uncle, Estée learnt how to formulate skin creams and expertly apply them to the skin. In the late 1920s, Estée met Joseph Lauter. After they married in 1930 and moved to Manhattan, the couple adopted the surname Lauder, correcting a misspelling that dated back to the time when Joseph’s father emigrated from Austria to the United States.
Estée began selling skin care and makeup in beauty salons, demonstrating her products on women while they were sitting under hair dryers. In 1946, she and Joseph officially launched the company, and a year later they landed their first major order—$800 worth of products from Saks Fifth Avenue.
Estée and Joseph raised their sons around the family business, which was often a topic of discussion at the family’s dinner table. Leonard A. Lauder (1933-2025) and Ronald S. Lauder (born 1944) would both go on to join the company, leading its growth with an eye for innovation. Today, three generations of the Lauder family have served the company in executive roles.
As Chairman Emeritus of the Company, Leonard was deeply involved in the business and day-to-day operations until his death in June this year. He joined the company in the 1960’s which began a lifetime’s dedication to the family business and with the personal wealth it brought him, he was able to personally collect art and also support art institutions across the USA. Like many successful American business people he strived throughout his life to give back to his country as much as it had given him and his family in opportunities.
When asked about his collection he famously said, “People often ask me which is my favourite picture. I can talk to you about any picture in my collection hanging on any wall and if I’m near it, that’s my favourite picture. You have to train your eye, train your mind and the more you see the more you are able to see, so you have to study art, work hard and enjoy it all”.
Leonard was a particularly important and significant supporter of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He was Chairman and a trustee from 1977 to 2011. During this time he was one of the Museum’s most significant benefactors—including a milestone gift of $131 million in 2008 from The American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc., of which he was President. Lauder championed the Museum’s collection over the course of the last four decades. Since 1975, he helped the Museum acquire 948 works of art, 760 of which he gifted personally; an additional 188 were brought in with the assistance of acquisition committees and other generous collectors. His dedication to building museum collections also extended beyond the Whitney. He generously promised a major collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and in 2013 he pledged on his death an extraordinary gift of seventy-eight Cubist masterworks by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and Fernand Léger to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which they have now received.
Leonard Lauder was a teacher, a steward, and a generous New Yorker, he redefined what it means to be a patron of the arts.
The core of the collection was offered in a standalone 24-lot gala evening sale on Tuesday 18th November 2025, marking the inaugural auction at Sotheby’s new headquarters building on Madison Avenue New York, previously the site of the Whitney Museum. The room was packed to the rafters and the sale was led by one of the finest and most intricately conceived of the celebrated full-length portraits Klimt created during Vienna’s early 20th century Golden Age. Depicting the young Elisabeth Lederer, the daughter of Klimt’s greatest patrons, the painting has never before appeared at auction.
The pre sale estimate was not published in the catalogue but ‘available on request’ and rumoured to be in the region of $150 million. The bidding on this masterwork lasted for about 20 minutes, the auctioneer, Oliver Barker, opened the action at $130 million, and the price climbed steadily by intervals of $2 million, then $5 million.
The fight slowed as the price approached $170 million, but eventually Sotheby’s staffer David Galperin came in at $171 million with a surprise bid and then a three-way battle was joined and there were six bidders in total.
When the price reached $200 million, applause erupted and a Sotheby’s staffer on the phone won with his final bid which with buyer’s premium was $236.4 million.
Complementing the portrait were two signature square-format landscape paintings of Attersee, Klimt’s beloved summer retreat: Blumenwiese, a jewel-like mosaic of wildflowers from 1908, and Waldabhang bei Unterach in Attersee of 1916, painted with the broader, lyrical touch of Klimt’s mature style. These works, too, have never been available at auction. It is truly exceptional to see perhaps one major Klimt painting in a year so to have three in one auction is truly extraordinary.
Also unprecedented is the offering of six iconic sculptures by Henri Matisse. Major works by Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Agnes Martin, Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen, among others, reveal the full sweep of Mr. Lauder’s peerless eye. This exceptional collection, shines a new light on the full breadth of Mr. Lauder’s far-ranging connoisseurship.
Summary of results
Sotheby’s had already guaranteed the final price for the collection leaving them on the hook for some $400 million, according to market sources. In the weeks leading up to the auction, it had sought an investor(s) willing to place irrevocable bids on the three Klimt paintings, jointly valued at $300 million. Just 10 hours before the auction, Sotheby’s online catalog didn’t have any symbols signifying that it had succeeded in finding backers for the works, however by 9 a.m. on the day of the sale symbols had appeared alongside all but six of the lower-value lots in the sale…the final total for the evening was a shade over $700 million…phew!
While the results of auction sales are always fascinating and relevant to the Art Market as a whole, remember that they represent a price achieved on the day and at the time of the auction and only that. Therefore, as soon as is practical it’s important to add your new purchases to your existing insurance valuation and to of course to review your whole insurance valuation on a regular basis.
Jonathan started his career in the art world at the legendary London picture dealer Thomas Agnew and then to Christie’s in King Street as Director, Auctioneer and Head of Modern British pictures where in recognition of his wide knowledge base Jonathan was also appointed head of British and Irish Art, International Director of the 19th European picture department and Deputy Chairman.