2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

Focus> Life & Art> Content
Published: 15:47, March 22, 2022 | Updated: 18:21, March 22, 2022
Marilyn Monroe image by Warhol could fetch $200m at auction
By Reuters
Published:15:47, March 22, 2022 Updated:18:21, March 22, 2022 By Reuters

A journalist takes photos of Andy Warhol's 1964 "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" during a press preview March 21, 2022 in New York. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

NEW YORK - A portrait of actress Marilyn Monroe by 1960s pop icon Andy Warhol will go up for auction in May with an estimated value of $200 million, which would set a record, Christie's announced on Monday.

The work, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, "is poised to be the most expensive painting of the 20th century ever sold at auction," said Alex Rotter, Christie's chairman of 20th and 21st century art

The work, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, "is poised to be the most expensive painting of the 20th century ever sold at auction," said Alex Rotter, Christie's chairman of 20th and 21st century art.

The 1964 likeness of Monroe's face screenprinted with bright yellow hair, a pink face and light blue eyeshadow, is one of five paintings Warhol made of Monroe.

ALSO READ: In tribute to pop master

Warhol "used a screening technique on these paintings, on this painting, that he never used again. It was way too complicated, way too involved," said Rotter.

The work comes from the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation in Zurich. All the proceeds of the sale will benefit the foundation, which is dedicated to improving the lives of children around the world.

Andy Warhol's 1964 "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" is displayed during a press preview March 21, 2022 in New York. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

"The sale of this single painting will constitute the highest grossing philanthropic auction since the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in 2018," said Christie's American Chairman Marc Porter.

READ MORE: Space-aged wine offered for private sale by Christie's

Christie's says the highest price paid for a Warhol was for the painting Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), which sold for $105 million in 2013.


Share this story

CHINA DAILY
HONG KONG NEWS
OPEN
Please click in the upper right corner to open it in your browser !