Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’ sells for $195M to set record
NEW YORK — Maybe the image is not racy, like the one of Marilyn Monroe with her dress flying up in the movie “The Seven Year Itch,” but on Monday night, it became the priciest.
In under 4 minutes of bidding, Andy Warhol’s 1964 silk screen of the actor’s face, “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,” sold for about $195 million to an unknown buyer at Christie’s, making it the highest price achieved for any American work of art at auction.
The image shows Monroe in vibrant close-up hair yellow, eyeshadow blue and lips red on a rich blue background.
“We did sell the most expensive painting of the 20th century,” said Christie’s specialist Alex Rotter. “This is a big achievement.”
The 40-inch-square painting eclipsed the previous high price of $110.5 million for a Jean-Michel
Basquiat skull painting at Sotheby’s in 2017 as well as Warhol’s auction high for a car crash painting that sold for $105.4 million in 2013.
Monday’s sale kicked off a spring auction season in a city that has only begun to return to normal after two years of the coronavirus pandemic.
Christie’s salesroom at Rockefeller Center was filled with the familiar faces of dealers and art advisers who clearly welcomed the opportunity to bid on bluechip artworks in person again.
The buyer of the “Marilyn” will have a say in choosing to which charity 20% of the proceeds from that painting are allocated. The purchase is not considered a charitable donation, so it does not come with a tax deduction,
The Warhol painting, one of five in a series, is based on a promotional photo from Monroe’s film “Niagara,” part of a series of “Shot Marilyn” portraits.