“Portrait of a Lady” by Gustav Klimt (Galleria d’Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi)
“Portrait of a Lady” by Gustav Klimt (Galleria d’Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi)

Austrian symbolist master Gustav Klimt’s long-lost painting “Portrait of a Lady” will be shown in Seoul — for the first time outside Italy — since it was found in 2019 after having gone missing for 23 years.

The missing painting was discovered in December 2019 in a black garbage bag that was tucked behind a metal panel on the exterior wall of the museum’s garden. When it was found, the incident quickly drew global attention, with some celebrating it as a "Christmas present."

The identity of the perpetrator, and the painting’s whereabouts during its missing years, however, remain a mystery.

The oil painting — created in 1917, a year before the death of the artist — is the only “double portrait” by the master, who painted it over another portrait of a young woman that was created around 1910. The original painting of a woman — whom Klimt is believed to have had an affair with — is lost and known only through a photographic reproduction.

“The Miracle of Klimt and Other Treasures From Galleria d’Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi,” opening on Dec. 19 at My Art Museum in Gangnam, southern Seoul, is being co-organized with Galleria d’Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi, a modern art museum in northern Italy.

The Italian museum, established in 1931, is based on the private collection of Giuseppe Ricci Oddi, who was a jurist and patron of the arts. The collector purchased "Portrait of a Lady" in 1925 and kept the painting hung in the billiards room of his palazzo, according to the museum.

Klimt was a founding member of the Vienna secession movement, which incorporated a blend of ornate ornamentation and geometric forms across art and architecture to emphasize a unified “total work of art.”

Among the 700 paintings and sculptures of the museum’s collection, some 70 works, including “Portrait of a Lady,” will arrive in Seoul at the exhibition, running through March 22, 2026.


yunapark@heraldcorp.com