Andy Warhol’s ‘Shot Sage Blue Merlin’ auctioned for record-breaking $195 million
New York:
An iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe by American pop art visionary Andy Warhol went under the hammer at Christie’s on Monday for $195 million, becoming the most expensive artwork of the 20th century ever sold at public auction.
“Shot Sage Blue Merlin,” produced in 1964, two years after the death of the glamorous Hollywood star, sold for $195.04 million, including fees, in just four minutes in a crowded room at Christie’s headquarters in Manhattan.
Dozens of Christie’s associates were in the room holding their phones as they took orders from potential buyers. The auction house, owned by French magnate François Pinault, said in a brief press conference that the winning bid for “Merlin” was made from within the room.
According to Christie’s, prior to the sale, the picture was estimated to be worth around $200 million.
Despite falling just short of that threshold, it beat the previous record for a 20th-century work, Pablo Picasso’s “Women of Algiers,” which brought in $179.4 million in 2015.
The all-time record for any work of art from any period sold at auction is held by Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which sold for $450.3 million in November 2017.
Andy Warhol’s silk-screen work is part of a group of his paintings of Marilyn Monroe, which became known as the “Shots” series after a visitor to the Manhattan studio known as “The Factory”, apparently A gun was apparently fired at them.
In a statement, Christie’s described the 40-inch by 40-inch portrait as “one of the rarest and most outstanding images in existence.”
Alex Rotter, head of 20th and 21st century art at Christie’s, called the painting “the most important painting of the 20th century to be auctioned in a generation”.
“Andy Warhol’s Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American pop and the promise of the American Dream blends together optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography,” he said in a statement.
Andy Warhol began to silkscreen Marilyn Monroe after the actress died of a drug overdose in August 1962 at the age of only 36.
The pop artist created five paintings of Marilyn Monroe in 1964, which were similar in size with different colored backgrounds.
According to pop-art folklore, four of them gained notoriety when a female performance artist by the name of Dorothy Podber asked Warhol if she could shoot a stack of paintings.
Warhol said yes, thinking he meant she would photograph the works. Instead, he pulled out a gun and fired a shot at Monroe’s image in the forehead.
The story goes that the bullet pierced four of the five canvases Warhol repaired, leaving Dorothy Podber from The Factory and later paintings – the “Shot” series.
The picture “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” portrays her with a pink face, red lips, yellow hair and blue eyeshadow against a sage-blue background.
It was based on a promotional photo of him for the 1953 film “Niagara” directed by Henry Hathaway.
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During an unveiling at Christie’s headquarters, Alex Rotter said that the painting stood alongside Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Pablo Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, which “Clearly one of the greatest paintings of all time.”
According to an AFP tally, only 14 paintings have sold for more than $100 million at auction, though others are expected to change hands during the private sale.
The auction record for Warhol is $104.5 million paid for “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” in 2013.
In 1998, Sotheby’s sold an orange shot of Marilyn for $17 million.
Monday’s blockbuster sale from the Zurich-based Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation is the headline of Spring Sale Week.
All proceeds from the sale will benefit the Foundation, which works to improve the lives of children around the world.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)