This image provided by Sotheby's shows Gustav Klimt's 'Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer' (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer).

A Gustav Klimt portrait painting that helped save the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust sold Tuesday for $332-million, a record for a modern art piece.

Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold after a 20-minute bidding war at Sotheby’s in New York, where the flashiest item of the night was a solid gold, fully functioning toilet that went for $17-million.

The 1.8-metre-tall portrait, painted over three years between 1914 and 1916, depicts the daughter of one of Vienna’s wealthiest families adorned in an East Asian emperor’s cloak. It is one of two full-length portraits by the Austrian artist that remain privately owned. The work was kept separate from other

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