The Lauder Factor: Klimts at Auction

The elephant in the salesroom (or, more likely, on the phone) on Nov. 8, when Christie's sells four Klimts for the Bloch-Bauer heirs, will be the $135-million-dollar man, Ronald Lauder. The deep-pocketed collector recently predicted to television interviewer Charlie Rose that the four companion works to "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," his stellar acquisition for the Neue Galerie, would collectively fetch "even more" that what he paid for that painting.

And Lauder could certainly help make that happen. During our recent conversation at Adele's coming-out party in New York, he expressed interest to me in all four unattached Klimts. His participation in any of the bidding would likely help set a new auction record for the artist. If the Lauder Factor skews the results, it won't be the first time:

I can remember, when I covered major auctions regularly many years ago, watching in astonishment as the late dealer Serge Sabarsky regularly defied auctioneers' estimates to snap up what seemed to be every high-quality Expressionist work in sight, at record prices. When I asked him about this, he told me he was buying for a new museum that he intended to establish in Manhattan.

At that time, he didn't mention that he had a partner in creating what is now the Neue Galerie. But we now can surmise that Lauder's money helped back that giddy buying spree. When there's something he really wants, money's no object, as he himself admitted in describing to Charlie Rose his pursuit of "Adele Bloch-Bauer I":

ROSE: But how did you determine the price?
LAUDER: I did not determine it. That was the price they asked.
CHARLIE ROSE: Oh, I see. They said, "We want this, and you said, "Okay, fine." No negotiations, no bargaining, nothing.
LAUDER: Nothing. Zero. Took two seconds.
ROSE: Two seconds.
LAUDER: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: In other words, within the moment that it came out of their mouth that we want whatever it was, over $100 million...
RONALD LAUDER: I said yes.

Make that "the 2-second, $135-million man."