Post-Brexit London regained some credibility as the capital of Europe’s high-value art market on Tuesday when a radiant portrait by Gustav Klimt, “Lady With a Fan,” sold at Sotheby’s for 85.3 million pounds with fees, or about $108.4 million. The price was an auction high for the renowned Austrian artist and was the highest for a public sale in Europe, beating Alberto Giacometti’s “Walking Man I,” which sold for $104.3 million in 2010, also at Sotheby’s in London. The audience erupted into the sort of thunderous applause that hasn’t been heard at a London auction for some years. “The price was within our expectations,” said Wong, the former chair of Sotheby’s Asia, who added that she was buying for a Hong Kong collector. The final price topped Klimt’s previous auction high of $104.6 million, given in November for the 1903 landscape “Birch Forest,” at Christie’s, in New York.

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Persons: Gustav Klimt, ”, Alberto Giacometti’s “, Patti Wong, hasn’t, Wong Locations: Europe’s, Austrian, Europe, Sotheby’s, London, Hong Kong, Asia, Birch, ”, Christie’s, New York