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A landscape painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt is expected to sell for between $60 million and $80 million at Christie's in New York on Nov. 17, nearly three decades after it set an auction record for the artist.
The painting, Litzlbergkeller (1915–16), will headline Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale, marking its return to the auction market for the first time since 1997.
At its previous sale at Sotheby's in New York, the work fetched $14.7 million, setting a record for Klimt at the time.
Commissioned by Austrian banker and art patron Otto Primavesi, Litzlbergkeller depicts a brewery and inn along the northern shore of Austria's Lake Attersee, where Klimt regularly spent his summers between 1900 and his death in 1918.
The painting brings together dense green foliage, reflections on the water and Klimt's distinctive decorative style, incorporating elements of abstraction into the landscape.
Previously owned by art dealer and collector Serge Sabarsky, co-founder of New York's Neue Galerie museum, the work has spent recent years on long-term loan to Vienna's Leopold Museum.
The upcoming sale follows several major auction results for Klimt's paintings, including the $236.4 million sale of Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer at Sotheby's in November 2025, which established the artist's current auction record.
Another landscape, Birch Forest, sold for $104.5 million at Christie's in 2022.
Before returning to the auction block, Litzlbergkeller will be exhibited in Hong Kong from Oct. 27 to 29, followed by a public display at Christie's Rockefeller Center galleries in New York beginning Nov. 7.
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