Atypical Warhol sculpture fails to sell at auction

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The buzz quickly spread to media outlets like The New York Times and National Public Radio when a previously unknown sculpture by the late Pop artist Andy Warhol was discovered in a New England attic.

The piece was slated for auction last Saturday, and expectations were high, but it didn’t sell — an outcome blamed, in part, on a high minimum bid placed on it at the last minute by the estate’s executor.

The sculpture was a gift from Warhol to his last boyfriend, Jon Gould, who died in 1986 of complications from AIDS. Warhol died in 1987 of complications from gallbladder surgery. The sculpture and other memorabilia from their relationship was kept by Harriett Gould, Mr. Gould’s mother, who died a year ago.

Objects in the auction, which also included house furnishings and additional items from the Gould-Warhol relationship, were to be sold without a minimum price.

“In the 11th hour, 48 hours prior to the auction, the executor’s attorney put a high reserve on the sculpture,” said Dan Meader, director of John McInnis Auctioneers in Amesbury, Mass., by telephone Thursday.

Mr. Meader declined to give the reserve amount but said it was close to the auction house’s original estimate of $500,000 to $1 million.

“It was a great auction otherwise,” he said. “There was a lot of interest. Over 2,700 registered to bid from 20 countries. Bids came from all over the world. Things went for way higher than the estimates.”

For the sculpture Warhol appears to have reconfigured a blank stretched canvas and added splotches of the primary colors, red, yellow and blue. It’s atypical of the artist’s popularly known work, and speculation about its significance has ranged from being a commentary upon abstract art to one about his relationship to Mr. Gould. An inscription on the back reads “Jon/Andy Warhol 83.”

No plans have been made to date to feature the sculpture in a future auction.

“We’re letting the dust settle,” Mr. Meader said.

There also is the possibility that the auction house will be approached directly by an interested party.

Removing the sculpture still left a vast array of items to satisfy Warhol fans.

“He bought Jon a tremendous amount of things,” Mr. Meader said. “He showered him with gifts.”

Sales included the bed Jon and Andy owned, purchased by a North Carolina bidder; greeting cards Warhol had designed and sold through Tiffany, purchased by the Tiffany archives; and a beaded Halston dress that had been a gift to Mrs. Gould, purchased by a member of the Halston family.

Among the many snapshots was one of, “Andy sitting on the back deck with members of Jon’s family. We actually sold the chairs they were sitting in. It looks like a picture of a real New England family,” Mr. Meader said.

“We all know the Andy of the Pop Art world and his eccentricity.”