Most expensive work of the 20th century. Portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol sold for €185 million
The painting “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” became the second most expensive work in history sold at auction, behind Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi”.
Marilyn Monroe’s iconic 1964 painting by pop art master Andy Warhol sold for $195 million at Christie’s in New York on Monday. .
The selling price of the portrait of the American actress thus beats the record for a work of the 20th century, which was held by the “Women of Algiers”, by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso.
The painting, titled “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn”, becomes the second most expensive work in history sold at auction, behind Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi”, by which its current owner, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. , according to press reports, paid $450.3 million in November 2017.
According to Bloomberg, American art dealer Larry Gagosian was the winning bidder in the Marilyn Monroe portrait auction, which took place in the crowded room at Christie’s headquarters in Rockefeller Plaza, New York.
Warhol’s work belonged to the Foundation of brothers Thomas and Doris Ammann of Zurich, Switzerland, which sold it in a batch with 35 other works by artists such as Robert Ryman, Francesco Clemente, Sturtevant and Cy Twombly, as well as other works by Warhol. The amount raised from the sale of this lot is intended for health and education projects, which aim to improve the lives of children around the world.
Although it fell short of the $200 million (€189 million) Christie’s had hoped to raise, Marilyn’s portrait took Picasso’s $179.4 million work off the podium in May 2015, followed by ” Nu Couché”, by Amedeo Modigliani, sold for $170.4 million, also in 2015.
The portrait of the American actress nearly doubled the record for a Warhol work, “Silver Car Crash”, for which he was paid $104.5 million in 2013.
This is the most significant 20th century painting to be auctioned in a generation. Andy Warhol’s Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American pop and the promise of the American dream, one that brings together optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography at the same time,” said Christie’s President of 20th and 21st Century Art Alex Rotter, when the famous auction house announced the sale in March.
“Buy Immortality”
Andy Warhol, considered the father of ‘pop art’, produced four works after the actress’ death in 1962, which became known as the “Shot Marilyns”, all of the same size and with different backgrounds.
This series of portraits became known as “Shot Marilyns” after a visitor to “The Factory”, Warhol’s Manhattan studio, shot at the paintings, punching holes in the canvas. The works were later restored.
“There’s something special about these paintings by Marilyn. It’s magical, it has charisma,” said Richard Polsky, an expert on Warhol. But, above all, he added, “we are in a world where art has become a great investment”.
The new owner will not only “have a great work, but also a trophy. It’s like buying immortality,” said the expert.
In the coming days, Christie’s will auction other important works, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Pauper”, painted in 1982 and expected to raise more than $30 million; Mark Rothko’s “Untitled” (Shades of Red), valued at $80 million; and three works by Claude Monet, which are expected to fetch $30 million each.
Despite the pandemic, the art market in New York has recovered thanks to the great fortunes of the city, but mainly to buyers from other parts of the world, especially Asians, who are increasingly younger.
