Warhol’s portrait on Monroe goes for record R1.3bn

An iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe by American pop art visionary Andy Warhol sold for $195 million (about R1.3 billion) on Monday at Christie’s – becoming the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold at public auction.

Shot Sage Blue Marilyn produced in 1964 two years after the death of the glamorous Hollywood star, sold for exactly $195.04 million, including fees, in just four minutes in a crowded room at Christie’s headquarters in Manhattan.

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.

Prior to the sale, the portrait was estimated to go for about $200 million, according to Christie’s. While falling just short of that threshold, it nevertheless beat the previous record for a 20th century work – Pablo Picasso’s Women of Algiers, which brought $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 2017 for $450.3 million.

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.

In a statement, Christie’s described the 100cm by 100cm portrait as “one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence”.

Alex Rotter, head of 20th and 21st century art at Christie’s, called the portrait “the most significant 20th century painting” to come to auction in a generation. “Andy Warhol’s Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American Pop and the promise of the American Dream encapsulating optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography all at once,” he said in a statement.

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 coloured backgrounds, in 1964.

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.

The Shot Sage Blue Marilyn portrays her with a pink face, red lips, yellow hair and blue eye shadow set against a sage-blue backdrop.

It was based on a promotional photograph of her for the 1953 movie Niagara.

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.” –