Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches and other art objects, many of which are on display in the Vienna Secession gallery. Klimt's primary subject is the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. His pencil drawings, which are very numerous, have been regarded by many as his greatest legacy. He was educated at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) in the years 1879-1883 and received training as an architectural decorator. He began his professional career painting interior murals in large public buildings on the Ringstraße. Klimt was also an honorary member of the Universities of Munich and Vienna. Gustav Klimt died in Vienna on February 6, 1918 of a stroke and was interred at the Hietzing Cemetery, Vienna. Numerous paintings were left unfinished.

Purchased for the Neue Galerie in New York by Ronald Lauder for a reported US $135 million, the 1907 "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" deposed Picasso's 1905 "Boy with a Pipe (Garcon a la Pipe)" (sold May 5, 2004 for $104 million) as the world's most expensive painting, on or around June 19, 2006. This is one of the five paintings referred to below in the Legacy section and an NPR report. On August 7, 2006 Christie's auction house announced it was handling the sale of the remaining four of five works by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt that were recovered by the Bloch-Bauer heirs after a long legal battle.

Some of Gustav Klimt's famous paintings:
Danae
Garden Path with Chickens
Hope II
Judith I
Music I
Portrait of Adele-Bloch Bauer I
The Kiss
The Virgin
Water Serpents I