The iconic Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe is sold at Christie's for a record $195 million in New York in less than four minutes of bidding. This is "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn", made after the death of the movie star two years earlier (1962), and became the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold, for 170 million dollars plus tax , bringing the final price to 195 million dollars (184 million euros).
The price paid is close to that of the starting price (Christie's had predicted 200 million dollars as the maximum starting estimate). The buyer is the celebrity Larry Gagosian, US art dealer and owner of a chain of galleries. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Zurich-based Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation to create health care and education programs for children around the world.
Marilyn Monroe: film diva and muse of Warhol's Pop Art
Monroe has appeared in 29 films, including 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and 'Some Like It Hot.' Hailed as a "sex symbol" and fashion icon, she died of a drug overdose at her Los Angeles home at the age of 36. While Warhol died in 1987.
The image of Marilyn takes a promotional photo taken for the year before film Niagara of 1953, and refers to an incident in which a woman used a gun to shoot four portraits of the actress in Warhol's studio. It is a portrait of Marilyn with yellow hair, blue eyeshadow and bright red lips, against a sage green background. Warhol transformed the portrait into a pop icon by changing its colors.
Warhol's colorized reproductions of Monroe's photographic portrait are among his most recognizable works, along with his own paintings of Campbell's soup cans. Using a technique called screen printing, which duplicates images on paper or canvas using a layer of fine-mesh silk as a stencil, he began creating them shortly after Monroe's death. As with his depictions of other famous people, including Elvis Presley and Chinese leader Mao Zedong, the pop artist created numerous versions of Monroe's portrait in different colors and configurations: red, orange, blue, sage blue auctioned) and turquoise.
“Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American pop,” said Alex Rotter, president of XNUMXth and XNUMXst century art at Christie's. “The painting transcends the genre of portraiture, surpassing the art and culture of the XNUMXth century”.
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn had been held in the collection of Swiss art dealers Thomas and Doris Ammann. Earlier this year, George Frei, the chairman of the board of the Thomas and Doris Amman Foundation, said the painting "testifies to [Monroe's] undiminished visual power in the new millennium."
Warhol with the portrait of Marilyn also beats Picasso
The previous record was set in 2015 when a 1955 painting by Pablo Picasso “Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O)” was sold for 179,4 million dollars again at Christie's in New York. Now worth $195 million, the painting by the king of Pop Art has climbed the charts to take first place for the most expensive work in the world. The record was previously held by a 1982 skull by Jean-Michael Basquiat, Warhol's friend, collaborator and rival, sold for $110,5 million in 2017.
But Warhol also breaks his own record held by Silver car crash (Double disaster) (in 2 parts) (1963), which sold for $105,4 million in 2013. most expensive work of all time, “Salvator Mundi” by Leonardo da Vinci, sold in 2017 at Christie's in New York for $450 million by the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism.
