Klimt portrait looted by the Nazis sells for a record-breaking $236m

A painting by Gustav Klimt has sold for a record-breaking $236.4m (£179.7m), making it the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction as well as the most expensive work of modern art sold at auction.

- Sian Cain

The 1.8 metre-tall painting, titled Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, was painted by the Austrian artist between 1914 and 1916 and shows Lederer, a young heiress and daughter of one of Klimt's patrons, draped in a Chinese robe.

Six bidders battled for 20 minutes at the Sotheby's auction on Tuesday in New York. Sotheby's declined to identify the successful buyer.

Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer was looted by the Nazis and nearly destroyed in a fire during the second world war, but in 1948 it was returned to Lederer's brother Erich, who was a frequent subject of drawings and paintings by Klimt's friend and fellow artist Egon Schiele. It remained in Erich's possession for most of his life, until he sold it in 1983, two years before his death.