Andy Warhol's portrait of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe was worth 185 million euros to the bidder. “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” is the most expensive work of art from the 20th century ever auctioned.
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Monroe portrait for Record price auctioned
The auction at Christie's headquarters in New York lasted just four minutes, then Andy Warhol's portrait changed hands. According to several observers in the packed hall, the last bid came from the US -Art dealer Larry Gagosian, who was present in person. However, it is unclear whether he bought the work for his own gallery or on behalf of a client. Christie's did not comment.
The value of Andy Warhol's work “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn”, created as a screen print in 1964, was previously estimated at 200 million dollars (around 189 million euros). The purchase price of 195 million dollars (almost 185 million euros) was only slightly lower at the auction. Never before has a work from the 20th century come under the hammer for such a high price. The previous record was achieved by Pablo Picasso's “Les femmes d'Alger (Version 0)” (“The women of Algiers”); the work was auctioned in May 2015 for $179.4 million. The previous record for a Warhol painting was $105.4 million for “Silver Car Crash (double disaster)”.
The most expensive painting ever sold at auction, Leonardo da Vinci's “Salvator Mundi”, was 2017 estimated at 100 million US dollars and finally grossed 450 million.
“'Marilyn' is the pinnacle of American pop”
“Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” is “one of the rarest and most extraordinary pictures there is,” Christie's said before the auction. “Andy Warhol's 'Marilyn' is the absolute pinnacle of American pop and the promise of the American dream that combines optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography,” said Alex Rotter, director of 20th and 21st Century Art at Christie's.
The picture owes its name to a misunderstanding in Warhol's studio: in 1964 the artist Dorothy Podber asked if she could “shoot” Warhol's pictures. Warhol understood that she wanted to take pictures of it. Instead, Podber pulled out a revolver and fired real bullets at four images in the series. The traces of the incident cannot be seen with the naked eye.
An icon himself: Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987)
The 'Shot Sage Blue Marilyn' screen print is based on a press photo of Marilyn Monroe for the 1953 film 'Niagara' and features the actress with pink face, ruby red lips, yellow hair and blue eye shadow against a blue background. Andy Warhol had acquired the portrait photograph in 1962, just a few days after Monroe's death, and cut off the lower part of the bust. Then he had a screenprint template made from it.
Formative for Andy Warhol's style
Warhol was enthusiastic about photographic screen printing at the time, and the technique ultimately led to his famous style. It was quick and easy, and Warhol could make small changes to the same photo over and over again.
On view worldwide: Warhol's “Marilyns”, here in an exhibition in Bangkok
In the years that followed, Warhol's “Factory” repeatedly issued screen prints with the Marilyn motif – as individual images, series, diptychs and so on. Today they hang in galleries and museums all over the world. In addition to “Campbell's Soup Cans”, the Marilyn Monroe portraits are among Andy Warhol's best-known and most executed motifs and among the most important works of Pop Art.
Warhol's works are the best known of Pop Art. See “Campbell's Soup Cans” at MoMA in New York
With the changing, sometimes garish colors and the repetition of the same motif, Warhol commented on Marilyn Monroe's status as an icon of western pop culture and at the same time he reflected the obsession with stars, the ever-expanding mass industry and consumerism. “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” is considered the most coveted of Warhol's numerous Marilyns. Its name comes from the fact that the performance artist Dorothy Podber once shot the row's stacked canvases with a revolver.
Sale for a good cause
It was considered certain that the sale of “Shot Blue Sage Marilyn” would bring in an astronomical sum. In 1998, Sotheby's auction house sold the orange version from the same Marilyn series for $17 million. Christie's sold the work on behalf of the Zurich-based Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation, which intends to use the proceeds to finance social projects for children around the world. The sale of the painting is “the largest philanthropic auction since the sale of the David and Peggy Rockefeller collection in 2018,” Christie's said in a statement.
This work brought in 17 million US dollars in 1998: The orange-colored “Marilyn”
The Ammann siblings were among the world's most important art dealers. Thomas Ammann, who died in 1993, had been commissioned by Warhol himself to compile a catalog raisonné in 1977. After Ammann's death, his sister Doris continued to run the gallery until her death in March 2021.
pj/suc/pg/ka (with afp, dpa, artnet.com, kurier.at)