The art market is really not predictable

Litzlberg am Attersee

"The art market is really not predictable," said Daniella Luxembourg, a dealer in New York and London. "It's influenced by the nervousness about the financial markets and the political instability around the world."


Christie's Nov. 1 sale missed its low estimate after the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 5.2 percent in two days. The index rose 1.6 percent yesterday before Sotheby's auction.


"If ever there was a turnaround, I think it happened tonight," Sotheby's auctioneer, Tobias Meyer, said after the two-hour-plus sale.


The top lot, Klimt's "Litzlberg am Attersee," was stolen by the Nazis from its Jewish owner and recently returned to the woman's grandson. The 1915 work depicts verdant hills above the lake of the title in western Austria.


Earlier this year, the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg, Austria, returned the work to Georges Jorisch, grandson of Amalie Redlich, who owned it until she was deported to Lodz, a Polish town with a large Jewish ghetto, and never heard from again. The Gestapo sold off her collection."

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Stolen $40 Million Klimt Helps Art Auction Rebound at Sotheby's:

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