Andy Warhol masterpiece sells for staggering $85million: Pop artist’s rare 1963 piece White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times) hit one of the highest ever prices for his work after being in a private collection for 25 years
- The piece was sold at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday night
- The auction house said $315m was generated from artworks sold in total
- The work is from the US artist’s celebrated Death And Disaster series
Andy Warhol’s masterpiece White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times) has sold for $85m – one of the highest prices ever paid for a work by the artist at auction.
The work, from the US icon’s celebrated Death And Disaster series, garnered almost a third of the total sum raised by an evening of contemporary sales at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday night.
The auction house said $315m was generated from artworks sold in total that evening.
The work, from the US icon’s celebrated Death And Disaster seriesgarnered almost a third of the total sum raised by an evening of contemporary sales at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday night.
White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times), has sold for $85m – one of the highest prices ever paid for a work by the artist at auction
The titan of pop art, who was said to be fixated on theme of mortality, printed 19 images of a fatal car crash in black and white tones to match the newspapers from which he drew inspiration for White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times).
The 1963 piece is ‘arguably the most significant achievement of his career’, Sotheby’s said.
The work, from a private collection where it has been for 25 years, is the first large painting from Warhol’s Death And Disaster series to come to auction since 2013 when Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) made $105m – a record for the artist at the time.
Prior to that, the only other work from the series to come to auction in the past 15 years was Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car), sold for $71.7m in 2007.
Measuring 12ft tall, it is the largest of all Warhol’s single-panel Car Crash works.
The Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday also saw strong sales for works from celebrated collections, including from the de Kooning Family Collection, The Collection of Geraldine and Harold Alden, The Mallin Collection, and The Collection of William S Paley.
The auction house said $315m was generated from artworks sold on the night in total. The 1963 piece is considered one of the most provocative and haunting artistic achievements of the 20th century. It is ‘arguably the most significant achievement of his career’, Sotheby’s said
Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, is the most expensive piece of artwork by an American artist ever sold at auction.
It went for $195m including fees in May at Christie’s in New York.
The previous record was set by Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting ‘Untitled’, which sold for $110.5m at Sotheby’s in 2017.
What are Andy Warhol’s most expensive artworks?
The Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday also saw strong sales for works from celebrated collections, including from the de Kooning Family Collection, The Collection of Geraldine and Harold Alden, The Mallin Collection, and The Collection of William S Paley
1: The Shot Sage Blue Marilyn became the most expensive Andy Warhol painting when it was sold at a Christie’s auction in New York for $195m in May this year. In a statement, Christie’s auction house described the 40-inch by 40-inch portrait as ‘one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence’.
2: The previous record for a work by Warhol at auction was set by Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), bought for $105.4m in 2013. Another masterpiece from his Death and Disaster series, it is considered one of his greatest achievements.
3: Eight Elvises is a silkscreen print painting that was created in 1963, along with Triple Elvis [Ferus Type]. The artwork was sold in a private auction via Philippe Ségalot for $100m. It is believed to have been bought by the State of Qatar.
4: Triple Elvis [Ferus Type] features Elvis Presley in three identical black-and-white pictures. The 2.1-meter-tall artwork is based on a publicity image of the legendary musician from his film Flaming Star (1960). The piece was sold for $81.9m at an auction in 2014.
5: Turquoise Marilyn is another of the five 40-inch by 40-inch paintings from the Shot Marilyns series, each of which is made from the same image of the Hollywood star. It was created in 1962 and sold for $80m.
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