(New York) A monumental and iconic canvas by Andy Warhol in the 1960s, White Disastersold for $85 million at auction Wednesday night at Sotheby’s in New York, below the American artist’s record.
It took two minutes and a brief duel between two representatives of the auction house, who took their orders on the phone, to award this work of 1963, at 74 million dollars at the hammer. Or 85,350,500 dollars with costs, while Sotheby’s estimated it at more than 80 million dollars.
The pop art master, who died in 1987, became an auction star and the last time a monumental canvas from this series, known as the Death and Disaster Serieshad been sold in 2013, it had set a new record for the artist, at 105 million dollars at Sotheby’s.
Since then, a portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964), was sold at the beginning of May at Christie’s, still in New York, for 195 million dollars, becoming the work of the 20e most expensive century ever sold at auction.
From his full name White Disaster [White Car Crash 19 Times], the canvas sold Wednesday evening, made with silkscreen ink and graphite, represents 19 times in black and white the same image of a macabre car accident, with a scene sometimes dazzled, as by the light of a flash. It is 3.6 meters high.
“At the end of 1962, Warhol painted Marilyn Monroe, which marked the beginning of his fascination with celebrity imagery. But it was actually (the) disappearance (of Marilyn Monroe) at the end of 1962 and the spectacle that surrounded it that captured his fascination and led him to create paintings of death and disaster at the beginning of the year 1963,” David Galperin, head of contemporary art for the Americas at Sotheby’s, told AFP.
Only three works from this crush image exist in this monumental format, one of which is in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
The one sold on Wednesday came from a private collection and Sotheby’s gave no information on the buyer, as is usual.