Klimt's last portrait sells for over $94M, breaking European auction record

The last portrait painted by Gustav Klimt was sold in London on Tuesday for $94.35 million (74 million pounds), setting a new European art auction record.

The celebrated Austrian symbolist' "Dame mit Facher" (Lady with a Fan) went under the hammer at Sotheby's.

The previous auction record for an artwork sold in Europe was for Alberto Giacometti's "Walking Man I", which went for $82.86 million in February 2010.

Described as a "beautiful, rich and alluring portrait of an unnamed woman", the portrait was found on his easel in his studio when he died unexpectedly in February 1918 aged 55.

Helena Newman, from Sotheby's, said earlier it was painted during Klimt's artistic prime when he was producing some of his most famous and experimental works.

"Many of those works, certainly the portraits for which he is best known, were commissions," said Newman, who is in charge of Sotheby's Europe and global head of Impressionist and Modern Art.

"This, though, is something completely different — a technical tour de force, full of boundary-pushing experimentation, as well as a heartfelt ode to absolute beauty."

Other earlier record breakers include Clau de Monet's "Le bassin aux nympheas" which went for $52.14 million at Christie's in London in June 2008. Last March, Rene Magritte's "L'empire des lumieres" sold for $75.73 million at Sotheby's.