An iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol has become the most expensive 20th century work of art ever sold.
It was sold at a Christie’s auction in New York for US$110 million.
Warhol painted the picture Shot Sage Blue Marilyn in 1964 using a famous photograph as inspiration.
It is also the highest price paid to date for an American work of art .
Before the auction, Christie’s published that the portrait is “one of the rarest and most important images in existence”, with a sale price “in the vicinity of US$200 million”.
The auction ended with a winning bid of US$ million, which increased to US$110 million when adding taxes and fees .
Until now the record price of an American work of art was US$110.5 million for the painting of a skull created in 1982 by Jean-Michael Basquiat, sometimes a friend and sometimes a competitor of Warhol.
The final price also breaks the previous record for a 20th century work of art, set in 2015 when a Pablo Picasso painting of 1955 -Women of Algiers (Version O)- was sold for a total price of US$179.4 million.
George Frei, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Thomas and Doris Foundation Ammann said in a statement in March that Monroe’s painting “bears witness to her visual power intact in the new millennium.”
“Marilyn, the woman, is gone; the terrible circumstances of her life and death have been forgotten,” Frei expressed. “All that remains is the enigmatic smile that links it to another mysterious smile of a distinguished lady, the Mona Lisa.”
The buyer, according to Bloomberg, was the American art dealer Larry Gagosian, owner of a chain of art galleries.
According to Christie’s , all proceeds from the sale will go to the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, which operates health and education programs for children around the world.
Monday’s was the first in a series of art auctions organized by Christie’s and Sotheby’s over the next two weeks, which experts consider proof of the excellent health of the luxury art market in the post-pandemic era.
Philip Hoffman, founder of the New York-based consulting company Fine Art Group, told the American newspaper The New York Times that there is a “huge amount of demand to accumulated “art.
” Everyone was waiting for the right moment “, he said. “And the right time has come.”
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