Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt recently set a landmark in the art world: his “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” (1914–1916) sold at Sotheby’s for an astonishing $236.4 million, making it the most expensive modern artwork ever auctioned. The portrait, which depicts Elisabeth — the daughter of Klimt’s patrons — in a flowing Chinese-style robe, carried a fraught history, having been seized by the Nazis during World War II and later returned to her family. Once part of cosmetics heir Leonard L