Christie’s says Warhol “Marilyn” could fetch $200 mn at auction
New York, Apr 29 (EFE).- One of Andy Warhol’s iconic paintings of Marilyn Monroe is set to go on sale at Christie’s Auction House and is expected to draw bids in the range of $200 million or more.
Completed in 1964, two years after Monroe’s death, “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” can be described as the American equivalent of the Mona Lisa, Christie’s chairman for 20th and 21st Century Art, Alex Rotter, said Friday.
The “most significant 20th century painting to come to auction in a generation” – in Christie’s words – looks likely to set a new record price for a work by Warhol (1928-1987), surpassing the $105 million paid in 2013 for “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster).”
Other standouts of the May 9-14 Marquee Week at Christie’s New York will be two Mark Rothko paintings from the collection of the late Anne H. Bass: “Untitled (Shades of Red),” with an estimated sale price between $60 million and $80 million, and “No. 1,” which is projected to bring in as much as $65 million.
A quartet of Monet works from the same collection carry estimates in the range of $50 million to $60 million.
Christie forecasts that Picasso’s sculpture “Tête de Femme (Fernande)” will sell for around $30 million, while a Van Gogh painting never displayed in public, “Champs prês des Alpilles,” is valued at $45 million.
Pieces by Gerhard Richter (“Abstraktes Bild”), Jackson Pollock (“Number 31”), and Jean-Michel Basquiat (“Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict”) are also expected to command prices in excess of $30 million.
And Man Ray’s “Le Violon d’Ingres” will establish a new record price for a photograph if it meets Christie’s target of $5 million to $7 million). EFE hc/dr
