‘Sage Blue Marilyn’ shoots to record
NEW YORK: One of late pop artist Andy Warhol’s famed 1964 silkscreened portraits of Marilyn Monroe sold for $US195 million ($NZ307.9 million) yesterday, a record for a work by an American artist, sold at auction.
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is one in a series of large portraits Warhol made of the actress after her death in 1962. Four of the five stacked works were shot by Dorothy Podber, who asked if she could ‘‘shoot’’ them. Warhol thought she meant a photo.The holes were repaired. The five had red, orange, light blue, sage blue, and turquoise backgrounds.
Held in the collection of Swiss art dealers Thomas and Doris Ammann, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn was sold by Christie’s at an auction in New York.
The painting sold for a hammer price of $US170 million. Added fees gave it a final price of $US195 million. The sale broke the previous record for a US artwork at auction of $US110.5 million set in 2017 for a 1982 painting by JeanMichel Basquiat.