A famous portrait of Marilyn Monroe by American pop art master Andy Warhol sold for US$195 million at Christie’s on Monday night in New York, becoming the work of art of the XXand most expensive century ever sold at public auction.
Shot Sage Blue Marilyna painting executed in 1964, two years after the tragic death of the glamorous Hollywood icon, went in four minutes at the exact price of 195.04 million dollars, including expenses, in a packed room at the house’s headquarters. Christie’s, in the heart of Manhattan.
Dozens of Christie’s intermediaries were also in the auction room, hanging on their phones to take orders from buyers. The auction house, owned by the very large French fortune François Pinault, clarified during a brief press conference that the offer which had won the “Marilyn” had been made from the room.
Pre-sale estimates hovered around $200 million.
This portrait of Marilyn Monroe beats the previous record for a 20th century workand century, Women of Algiers (version 0) by Pablo Picasso, sold at auction for $179.4 million in May 2015, and the Reclining Nude of Amedeo Modigliani (170.4 million in November 2015).
The absolute record, all periods combined, for a sale of a work of art at auction is held by the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, auctioned in November 2017 for $450.3 million.
The auction record for a Warhol belonged to Silver Car Crasha monumental canvas representing a car accident, sold for 105 million dollars in 2013.
Founding incident
Painted with silkscreen ink and acrylic, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is one of five meter-by-meter portraits of vivid, saturated and contrasting colors that the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-born, New York-based artist made in 1964 from a promotional photo from the movie niagara in 1953. Pink face, blond hair and pronounced lipstick, the actress reveals an enigmatic smile, on a turquoise blue background.
Four of the five photos from 1964 take their name from an incident that makes them legendary. At Andy Warhol’s studio in Manhattan, The Factory, a visiting artist, Dorothy Podber, had asked if she could photograph (“shoot“) the tables. Warhol had accepted, not understanding that she was then going to pull out a revolver and shoot four portraits. To the naked eye, no trace appears today of this incident on the work.
The portrait is part of a collection put up for sale by the Zurich-based Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation, named after the Swiss art dealer and collector Thomas Ammann, a friend of Warhol who died of AIDS in 1993, and his sister Doris. All proceeds from the sale will go to the foundation, which is dedicated “to improving the lives of children” through health and education, according to Christie’s.