Lego turns Klimt’s The Kiss into a 4,000-piece art set

Lego is giving Gustav Klimt the brick treatment, and it is not a quick coffee-table build. The company says its new Lego Art Gustav Klimt – The Kiss set contains 4,000 pieces, making it the largest Art Masterpiece set it has released.

The set, officially named Lego Art Gustav Klimt – The Kiss and numbered 31221, is priced at $299.99. According to Lego, Lego Insiders will get first access on Aug. 1, while the wider release begins Aug. 4.

Preorders are not yet open, according to the product information now circulating from Lego, so buyers with shelf space, wall space or a very patient building table will have to wait a little longer.

A museum-backed brick makeover

Lego says the set was created with the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, where Klimt’s original painting is held. The collaboration paired Stephanie Auer, a curator of 19th- and 20th-century art at the museum, with Milan Madge, a master model designer at the Lego Group.

Auer said in Lego’s announcement that adapting Klimt’s painting into a Lego Art set was “a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” She said she and Madge discussed Klimt’s symbolism, ornamentation and techniques while working out how those ideas could be represented with bricks.

“Distinctive features such as the flatness and composition were carefully translated into LEGO bricks, always with the goal of staying true to the spirit of the original work,” Auer said in the announcement.

Gold, flowers and a lot of tiny parts

The finished design uses circles, spirals, studs, flowers and metallic gold bricks to recreate the famous image, according to Lego’s product details. The set is part of the company’s Art line, which is aimed at builders looking for display pieces rather than play sets.

Lego recommends the set for adults. With 4,000 pieces in the box, it sits firmly in project territory: the kind of build likely to take more than one sitting, and possibly more than one pair of hands for anyone who prefers company while sorting parts.

The Kiss is one of Klimt’s best-known works, and Lego’s version follows the company’s push into display-focused releases built around art, design and pop culture. This one leans hard into texture and pattern, using Lego pieces to mimic the painting’s ornamented surfaces.

For collectors, the key dates are simple: Aug. 1 for Lego Insiders, Aug. 4 for everyone else. The price is $299.99, and the piece count is 4,000. For anyone who has been waiting for a summer build with a little museum polish, Klimt is now on the brick calendar.

This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.