Gustav Klimt's masterpiece "Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer" (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) just made auction history, becoming the most valuable work of modern art ever sold at $236.4 million.

Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” was commissioned by Serena Lederer, one of Klimt’s closest friends and patrons, to immortalize her young daughter. Klimt created many sketches and portrayed Elisabeth as a quiet, introspective figure surrounded by elegant, lush ornament details, decorative patterns. It became one of his last major society portraits.

Confiscated by the Nazis during World War II, this portrait narrowly escaped the tragic fate of other Klimt works from the Lederer family collection, which were destroyed in a fire at the end of the war. Remarkably preserved, the painting has been part of Leonard A. Lauder’s private collection for the past forty years.