Gustav Klimt Water Serpents Habotai Silk Scarf

The Gustav Klimt Water Serpents Habotai Silk Scarf features elements from the painting Wasserschlangen II (in English Water Serpents II) by the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918).

The painting has had a colorful history. It was originally commissioned for Jenny Steiner, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, and after the death of her husband Gebrüder Steiner, was herself the director of a silk manufacturing company. Under the Anschluss of 1938 and being of Jewish heritage, her family's factories were expropriated by the Nazis and her extensive art collection, which included many works by Klimt including Wasserschlangen II, was stolen and auctioned in Vienna beginning in 1940. Steiner escaped with many of her family members to Portugal, then Brazil and finally to the USA. In 2013 the painting was one of the works at the centre of The Bouvier affair, when it was sold, potentially fraudulently, by the Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier to the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $183.3 million. 100% Habotai Silk. Hand rolled hems. Dimensions: 70” x 20.5” (180cm x 52cm).