Dorotheum can look back on an outstanding auction year. Dorotheum's international orientation is crucial to its success. Bidders from over 90 countries competed for the artworks. Dorotheum recorded spectacular increases in the higher price range over the course of the year. An absolute highlight was the drawing ‘Kauernder Rückenakt’ (Crouching Nude) by Egon Schiele from 1917, the artist's penultimate year of creativity, which changed hands for €3.23 million. Hammers falling for works by important representatives of classical modernism such as Giorgio de Chirico, Marc Chagall and Alfons Walde made this the auction house's most successful category. At the top of the contemporary art list was the work ‘Two Inquisitors II’ by Czech artist Mikuláš Medek, which fetched an outstanding €812,500. In the Old Masters section, a portrait by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya achieved a sensational result of €520,000. In the 19th-century paintings section, the painting ‘Hansl's First Outing’ by Austrian painter Georg Ferdinand Waldmüller attracted attention with a top price of €520,000.

The atmosphere in the auction room was electric: The centerpiece of Dorotheum's Modern Art Auction on 18 November 2025, was Egon Schiele’s “Crouching Nude, Back View” from 1917, created in his penultimate year. Following a thrilling bidding battle, a telephone bidder triumphed, securing the masterpiece for 3.23 million euros.

This 1917 drawing by Egon Schiele, a leading figure of the Wiener Moderne, is one of the highlights of Dorotheum’s Modern Art auction. With precise yet fluid lines, Schiele captures the tension between structure and fragility. Once owned by Serena Lederer, close friend of Gustav Klimt and key patron of Vienna Modernism, the work epitomizes Schiele’s fine balance between physicality and otherworldliness.

Discover important works by Austrian and international stars of Contemporary Art in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Part I and II auctions at Dorotheum on 19 and 20 November 2025. One of the top lots is the work Linie č. 109 (Lines No 109) by Czech artist Zdeněk Sýkora – pioneer of algorithmically generated art (estimate € 200,000 – 300,000). The auctions also offer top works by Andy Warhol, Enrico Castellani, Martha Jungwirth, Carla Accardi, Herbert Brandl, Antony Gormley and Josef Albers. Contemporary Week will conclude on 3 December 2025 with the Editions Auction, featuring works by Andy Warhol, Gert and Uwe Tobias, Gerhard Richter, and William Kentridge.

Contemporary Week at Dorotheum is starting with the Modern Art auction on 18 November 2025. Among the highlights of this auction is a 1917 drawing by Egon Schiele: Kauernder Rückenakt (Crouching Nude, Back View) from the collection of August and Serena Lederer (estimate € 1,800,000 – 2,500,000). Other highlights of the auction include important works by icons of art history such as Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Carl Moll, Alfons Walde, Marino Marini and Francis Picabia.

“Hansl’s First Outing” – a late masterpiece by the eminent Biedermeier artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller – was restituted from the Museum Wiesbaden in July and will be offered at auction at Dorotheum on 22 October 2025.

The recently rediscovered portrait of the young Duke of Alba by Francisco de Goya is one of the highlights of the Old Masters auction. Goya’s stylistic and technical innovations — the subtle layering of pigments and the light impasto — testify to his distinctly modern approach. The present portrait has been requested for the upcoming exhibition “Goya and the Duchess of Alba”, to be held in 2027/2028 at the Palacio de Liria in Madrid and the Hispanic Society in New York. The exhibition will be curated by Guillaume Kientz.

Art historical discoveries by some of the most famous artists of their time will dominate the Old Masters auction at Dorotheum on 23 October 2025. Among the significant paintings by Spanish masters is a rediscovered portrait of the young Duke of Alba by Francisco de Goya (€ 400,000 – 600,000), a 17th-century Spanish still life whose clarity of composition, in line with Counter-Reformation ideals, invites the viewer to reflection (estimate upon request), as well as an opulent still life arranged upon a multi-tiered piece of furniture by Juan de Espinosa (€80,000 – 120,000). Equally outstanding are a Vanitas still life by Jan Brueghel II (€120,000 – 180,000) and a Roman capriccio by Giovanni Paolo Panini, paying homage to Aesculapius, the god of medicine and healing (€300,000 – 400,000).