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We've got bad news for art collectors who've invested heavily in screen prints of soup cans: Their value might be about to plummet, because Andy Warhol's estate is selling out. The Andy Warhol Foundation is dumping its entire collection—more than 20,000 works—in a move expected to bring in more than $100 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. "We're converting art into money," the foundation's chair says, promising to use it to expand grant programs.
The foundation says it's grown tired of auctioning the pieces off little by little, so it has asked Christie's to sell the whole caboodle. The collection, while now devoid of real masterpieces, covers the entire arc of Warhol's career. The first batch goes on sale in November at the New York auction house, to be followed by a series of online sales. This sudden influx of supply is expected to drive down the price of all of Warhol's works. "It's ridiculous," says one collector who owns 800 Warhols. "They have a great product, and they're pushing it out into the market like cattle."
