Andy Warhol’s ‘Shot Sage Blue Marilyn’ sold for a cool $195 million on Monday, making the iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe the most expensive work by a U.S. artist ever sold at auction.
The 1964 silkscreen image shows Monroe in vibrant close-up – hair yellow, eyeshadow blue and lips red – on a rich blue background.
It’s also the most expensive piece from the 20th century ever auctioned, according to Christie’s auction house in New York, where the sale took place.
In a statement, Christie’s described the 40-inch (100-centimeter) by 40-inch portrait as ‘one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence.’
The Warhol sale unseated the previous record holder and another modern master, Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose 1982 painting ‘Untitled’ of a skull-like face sold for a record $110.5 million at Sotheby’s in 2017.
Dozens of Christie associates were in the room clutching their phones as they took orders from potential buyers.
The auction house owned by French magnate Francois Pinault said in a brief press conference that the winning bid for the ‘Marilyn’ was made from within the room.
Christie’s said an unnamed buyer made the purchase Monday night.
When the auction was announced earlier this year, they estimated it could go for as much as $200 million.
‘It’s an amazing price,’ said Alex Rotter, chairman of Christie’s 20th and 21st century art department. ‘Let it sink in, it’s quite something.’
‘Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American Pop and the promise of the American Dream encapsulating optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography all at once,’ Rotter said. ‘The painting transcends the genre of portraiture, superseding 20th century art and culture.’
At an unveiling at Christie’s headquarters, Rotter said the portrait stood alongside Sandro Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’, Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ and Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ as ‘categorically one of the greatest paintings of all time.’
‘This is where we wanted to be, clearly,’ said Guillaume Cerutti, CEO of Christie’s. ‘It proves we are in a very resilient art market.’
The proceeds of the sale will go to the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation Zurich, which put the painting up for auction. The foundation aims to help children with health care and educational programs.
Warhol began creating silkscreens of Monroe following the actress’s death from a drug overdose aged just 36 in August 1962.
The pop artist produced five portraits of Monroe, all equal in size with different colored backgrounds, in 1964.
This particular painting has been exhibited in museums around the world.
The work is built on a promotional photo of Monroe from the 1953 film Niagara, directed by Henry Hathaway, screened with bright colors over her eyes, hair and lips.
Warhol’s silk-screen work is part of a group of his portraits of Monroe that became known as the ‘Shot’ series after a visitor to his Manhattan studio, known as ‘The Factory,’ apparently fired a gun at them, although ‘Shot Sage Blue Marilyn’ was not struck by a bullet.
According to pop-art folklore, four of them gained notoriety after a female performance artist by the name of Dorothy Podber asked Warhol if she could shoot a stack of the portraits.
Warhol said yes, thinking she meant she would photograph the works. Instead, Podber took out a gun and fired a bullet through the forehead of Monroe’s image.
The story goes that the bullet pierced four of the five canvasses, with Warhol barring Podber from The Factory and later repairing the paintings — the ‘Shot’ series.
Monroe was one of Hollywood’s best-known stars before her death of an overdose at her home in Los Angeles on August 4, 1962.
This particular painting was produced two years after the death of the glamorous star and beats the previous record for a 20th century work, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Women of Algiers,’ which was brought for $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 in November, 2017 for $450.3 million.
Source: Daily Mail
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