Heir of Margarethe Lieser Sues for Restitution of Gustav Klimt Portrait That Fetched $37.5 M. at Auction in Austria Before the Sale Fell Through
Patricia J. Leahy, a South Carolina–based claimant to the Lieser family estate, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court seeking restitution of Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Fräulein Margarethe Lieser, a painting the artist was working on when he died in 1918. The portrait sold on a single bid for $37.5 million at Vienna auction house Im Kinsky in 2024—an Austrian auction record—but the Hong Kong buyer represented by Patti Wong and Associates later withdrew after failing to reach agreement with potential claimants. Leahy, represented by Baker & Hostetler, alleges she is the sole great-grandchild of commissioner Adolf Lieser and says she was not contacted before the sale, disputing Im Kinsky’s claim that all rightful heirs were identified under the 1998 Washington Principles. The suit names Eva Ropper and Im Kinsky as defendants and argues the $37.5 million price was “well under market,” citing Klimt auction benchmarks including $236.4 million for Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914–16) at Sotheby’s New York in November and $108.6 million for Dame mit Fächer (1917) at Sotheby’s London in 2023.
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This story was covered in Restitution Wars and the Auction Market’s Misfires