Andy Warhol’s iconic Marilyn Monroe portrait sells for record $195m

[Walter Hale 4]

Pop artist Andy Warhol’s image of Marilyn Monroe, one of his best known portraits, has smashed records after selling for $195m in New York in less than four minutes of bidding.
Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn on display at Christie’s in New York.
Yours for $200m: why Warhol is now worth more than Picasso
Read more

Warhol’s 1964 silk-screen image of Marilyn Monroe, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, created after the film star’s death two years earlier, has become the most expensive piece of 20th-century art ever sold following its auction on Monday for $170m plus fees, taking the final price to $195m.

The previous record was set in 2015 when a 1955 painting by Pablo Picasso – Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) – sold for $179.4m.

It has also become the most expensive work by an American artist to be sold at auction. The record was previously held by a 1982 skull painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol’s sometime friend, collaborator and rival, which sold for $110.5m in 2017.


According to reports, the buyer was Larry Gagosian, a US art dealer and owner of a chain of galleries. Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is one in a series of portraits Warhol made of Monroe after her death.

The sale of the 40in by 40in-work at Christie’s also smashed Warhol’s previous record. That had been held by Silver car crash (Double disaster) (in 2 parts) (1963), which sold for $105.4m in 2013.

“Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American pop,” Alex Rotter, chairman of 20th and 21st century art at Christie’s, said. “The painting transcends the genre of portraiture, superseding 20th century art and culture.”

The title of the painting, based on a promotional photo of Monroe from the 1953 film Niagara, refers to an incident in which a woman used a pistol to shoot at four portraits of the actor in Warhol’s studio.

Shot Sage Blue Marilyn had been held in the collection of Swiss art dealers Thomas and Doris Ammann. Earlier this year, George Frei, the chairman of the board of the Thomas and Doris Amman Foundation, said the painting “bears witness to [Monroe’s] undiminished visual power in the new millennium”.

He added: “Marilyn the woman is gone; the terrible circumstances of her life and death are forgotten. All that remains is the enigmatic smile that links her to another mysterious smile of a distinguished lady, the Mona Lisa.”


Written by Harriet Sherwood , Arts and culture correspondent

@harrietsherwood

Tue 10 May 2022 19.43 AEST

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/may/09/andy-warhol-marilyn-monroe-portrait-auction

[Jaime1234]

Gagosian was its first owner. He sold it for US$30,000, then it changed owners until it was sold two days ago and he bought it, the receipts going to charity.

This sale by Christie's will surely have a bearing in the sale of a so called Single Elvis this coming 19 of May. Sotheby's made the matter official, set the expected prices, BEFORE Warhol came back from a 4 year hiatus to shatter records by younger artists like Basquiat. The Elvis by Warhol was expected to fetch US$15 to 25 million, which will be a record for a single Elvis anyways, but the fact Warhol has now gone over prices paid for the work of all artists born in the 20th Century will have an effect on the price collectors would be willing to pay, a fortnight later, for another Warhol. I expect the Single to fetch US$30 million with the fees included. Until last week, Gagosian had a "Triple Elvis" sort of bookended by two Picassos. Now he can place the MM in between the three. LOL



https://scontent.fmga3-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274987552_7154878667886684_1830817031074469863_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-6&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=PDohsbCUjq0AX8PQnFL&_nc_ht=scontent.fmga3-2.fna&oh=00_AT_Ebdrdcl1iJV3QACrdX7v63HdE_qMqRqPeTNp8-0VjFw&oe=62805683

[Jaime1234]

Prices known to have been paid for 12 out of the 39 Elvis Warhols known to exist add up to US400,000,000 as follows

i) "Double Elvis"....................................... US$0.7m
ii) "Elvis Campbell".................................. US$1.4m,. then US2,8m,''
iii) "Triple Elvis".......................................,USD 1,8
iv) "Red Elvis " .........................................US$2.9m
v) "Elvis single"....................................... US$3.5m,
vi) "Elvis I and II",................................... US$15,7m,
vii) "Elvis single"....................................US$ 30,m (expected 19 May 2022)
viii) Elvis x 2............................................ US$ 37.03m
ix) "Double Elvis",....................................... US$37.1m, then US$37m,
x) "Double Elvis.......................................... US$53m.
xi) "Triple Elvis"...........................................US$81.9m and
xii) "Eight Elvises"........................................ US$100m