NEW YORK, United States —
Andy Warhol’s iconic
sage-blue background portrait of Marilyn Monroe is tipped to sell for a
record-breaking $200 million at auction in the spring, Christie’s announced
Monday.
اضافة اعلان
The auction house said it expects Warhol’s 1964 “Shot Sage
Blue Marilyn” to become the most expensive 20th century artwork when it goes
under the hammer in New York in May.
The silk-screen work is part of a group of Warhol 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 40 inch (100
centimeter) by 40 inch 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 colored 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 that she meant photograph the
works. Instead, she 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” portrait 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” directed by Henry Hathaway.
Charity
At an unveiling at Christie’s headquarters in Manhattan,
Rotter said the portrait stood alongside Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”,
Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and
Pablo Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
as “categorically one of the greatest paintings of all time.”
Only 14 paintings have sold for more than $100 million at
auction, according to an AFP tally, although others are expected to have
changed hands for as much during private sales.
The most expensive 20th century artwork sold at auction is
Picasso’s “Women of Algiers,” which fetched $179.4 million in 2015.
The auction record for a Warhol is the $104.5 million paid
for “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” in 2013.
In 1998, Sotheby’s sold the orange shot Marilyn for $17
million.
Christie’s is selling the work, which will headline its
spring sales week, on behalf of the Zurich-based Thomas and Doris Ammann
Foundation.
All proceeds of the sale will benefit the foundation, which
works to improve the lives of children around the world.
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