Sotheby's is preparing to auction three exceptional Gustav Klimt paintings from the collection of the late Leonard Lauder, the cosmetics magnate who built Estée Lauder into a global empire before his death in June. The auction house expects the November 18 sale in New York to generate over $400 million, featuring works that have never appeared on the open market despite their rich and complex histories.

The crown jewel of the collection is "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer," a painting of the daughter of one of Klimt's most important patrons, estimated at $150 million. Two additional Klimt works round out the exceptional offerings: "Flower Meadow," valued at over $80 million, and "Forest Slope at Unterach on Lake Attersee" from 1916, which Sotheby's describes as the last surviving landscape painting by Klimt, carrying an estimate of $70 million.

Leonard Lauder was renowned as an old-school patron of the arts who donated a colossal Cubist collection to the Metropolitan Museum. While his brother Ronald Lauder, former U.S. Ambassador to Austria, was previously better known as a collector of Klimt and Viennese Modernist works, Leonard's collection reveals his own sophisticated taste for Austrian art. Ronald famously purchased the restituted "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I," known as the "Golden Adele," for a reported $135 million in 2006, displaying it at his Neue Galerie in New York.

The "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer," created between 1914 and 1916, exemplifies Klimt's reputation as a portraitist of Vienna's refined society. The Lederer family, who also acquired the "Beethoven Frieze" and the "Faculty Paintings," later faced Nazi persecution. During this period, Elisabeth Lederer briefly posed as Klimt's daughter for protection. The Nazis confiscated the painting, but it was returned to the family in 1946, eventually reaching Leonard Lauder through dealer Serge Sabarsky.

"Flower Meadow" also entered Lauder's collection in 1985 through Serge Sabarsky. According to Sotheby's documentation, the painting was first exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1910 and "apparently" entered the collection of patrons Hugo and Broncia Koller in 1928. However, the work's provenance became complicated in 2007 when Georges Jorisch, grandson of Amalie Redlich who was dispossessed by the Nazis, claimed ownership of the painting. Jorisch had also successfully pursued restitution of his grandmother's portrait from the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg. Sotheby's explains that this claim was "voluntarily withdrawn" the same year, noting that an earlier version of their press release had described the 2007 incident as a case of "mistaken identity."

The third Klimt work, "Forest Slope at Unterach on Lake Attersee," presents a relatively straightforward provenance story. Created in 1916 during one of Klimt's final summer retreats at Lake Attersee, this landscape was reportedly the first Klimt painting that Leonard Lauder acquired, according to the auction house.

The upcoming sale represents a significant moment for the art market, which has recently struggled not only with economic crises but also with a scarcity of exceptional works. The collection also includes paintings by Edvard Munch and bronzes by Henri Matisse, contributing to the auction's impressive estimated total. As the November sale approaches, speculation continues about potential buyers, with investors from Hong Kong having recently emerged as active purchasers of Klimt works in the international art market.