A Gustav Klimt painting that helped save the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust sold Tuesday for $236.4 million US, breaking a record for a modern art piece.

Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold at Sotheby's in New York City after a 20-minute bidding war, also becoming the most expensive artwork sold by the fine art broker worldwide. The flashiest item of the night, however, was a solid gold, fully functioning toilet that went for $12.1 million.

The Klimt piece is one of two full-length portraits by the Austrian artist that remain privately owned and that survived the Second World War intact.

Painted over three years between 1914 and 1916, it depicts the daughter of one of Vienna's wealthiest families adorned in an East Asian emperor's cloak. The work was kept separat

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