A striking early portrait by Gustav Klimt depicting Ghanaian Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona may soon find a home in a major museum following its headline-grabbing debut at TEFAF Maastricht. Vienna’s Galerie Wienerroither & Kohlbacher, which presented the €15 million work, confirmed ongoing negotiations with an undisclosed institution as the fair closed last week.
Unlike rapid-fire contemporary art sales, high-value Old Master deals often unfold slowly. “Due diligence takes time,” said gallery co-founder Lui Wienerroither, alluding to the complex provenance research surrounding this rediscovery. The painting resurfaced in 2023 when Austrian owners brought in a grimy, unframed canvas—later revealed to bear Klimt’s estate stamp and authenticated by scholar Alfred Weidinger.
The sitter’s history is as compelling as the artwork itself. Prince Dowuona was among 80 Africans displayed in Vienna’s 1896 “human zoo,” a colonial spectacle that drew thousands daily. Klimt likely encountered him there, capturing his likeness with uncharacteristic realism before his later gold-leafed stylizations emerged. However, floral motifs in the background hint at the artist’s evolving symbolism.
Ownership traces back to Klimt’s estate sale in 1923, later appearing in a 1928 memorial exhibition courtesy of Jewish collector Ernestine Klein. Forced to flee Nazi Austria in 1938, Klein’s heirs recently settled with current owners, enabling the sale. “We had to ensure all claims were resolved,” Wienerroither noted, explaining why the painting withdrew from last year’s TEFAF.
Though smaller and less flashy than Klimt’s golden masterpieces, scholars hail it as pivotal. “This portrait bridges his academic roots and modernist breakthroughs,” Weidinger observed—a sentiment that may justify its price tag as the only known Klimt currently on the market.
Born in 1862 on the outskirts of Vienna, Gustav Klimt emerged from poverty to become one of art history’s most dazzling provocateurs. The son of a gold engraver, he trained at Vienna’s School of Arts and Crafts, where he mastered classical techniques before shattering conventions. His early career painting murals for theatres and museums gave little hint of the coming radical sensuality.
The 1890s marked Klimt’s transformation. Co-founding the Vienna Secession in 1897, he rebelled against Austria’s conservative art establishment, declaring, “To every age its art, to art its freedom.” His 1901 Beethoven Frieze—a swirling, gold-leafed ode to human yearning—previewed the “Golden Phase” defining his legacy. Paintings like The Kiss (1907-08) fused Byzantine splendour with Freudian psychology, their intertwined lovers shimmering like sacred icons of desire.
Klimt’s portraits of Viennese society women—jaw-dropping in their geometric opulence—masked a private life of bohemian austerity. He never married, though rumours swirled about relationships with his models and muse Emilie Flöge, his sister-in-law. The Austrian state initially deemed his 1900 Medicine mural “pornographic,” yet by 1910, his Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I crowned him Europe’s most sought-after society portraitist.
When he died unexpectedly 1918 from a stroke, Klimt left dozens of unfinished canvases in his cluttered studio. Today, his works command astronomical sums (his Lady with a Fan sold for £85m in 2023). Yet, their true power lies in their fearless alchemy—where eros and mortality, ornament and emotion, become one shimmering vision. As critic Ludwig Hevesi observed during Klimt’s lifetime: “He didn’t paint with colours but with molten gold and gemstones.”