Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


0

$72M Sale Shatters Warhol Record

Auction madness continues as contemporary-art market sizzles

Share

(Newser) – An Andy Warhol painting sold for $71.7 million last night at Christie's, more than quadrupling the previous record price for a work by the pop artist. The price for "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," part of Warhol's "Death and Disaster" series, more than doubled the presale estimate and overshadowed the $28 million sale of "Lemon Marilyn."

Prices broke records for more than half of the 50 contemporary artists included in the sale, another sign of the red-hot market that saw a Rothko painting go for nearly $73 million at Sotheby's just one night earlier. The Christie's auctioneer called last night's feeding frenzy "one of the most remarkable sales I've ever seen."

Ken Yeh, deputy chairman of Christie's Asia gestures in front of a painting by Andy Warhol entitled
Ken Yeh, deputy chairman of Christie's Asia gestures in front of a painting by Andy Warhol entitled "Lemon Marilyn"during an auction preview in Hong Kong Wednesday, April 4, 2007. The painting estimated...   (Associated Press)
The painting titled
The painting titled " Green Car Crash " by Andy Warhol is seen...   (Getty Images)
The painting titiled
The painting titiled "Lemon Marilyn " by Andy Warhol is seen...   (Getty Images)
A Christie's staff member stands near a
A Christie's staff member stands near a   (Getty Images)
%u20AC%u2122s shows Andy Warhol's
%u20AC%u2122s shows Andy Warhol's "Lemon Marilyn," an acrylic and silkscreen on linen which is scheduled to be auctioned at Christie's in New York Wednesday evening, May 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Christie...   (Associated Press)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.20.09
The Health-Care Wars Have Just Begun
11.19.09
Sarah Palin Deserves Some More Attention
0 comments
VIEWING:
 
LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

53 Stories

 Color Christie's Blue 
 Over Weak Modern Sale 

Picasso, Mondrian flop at sparsely attended auction

Nov 4, 09 9:26 AM CST
(Newser) - A New York art dealer at the Christie's auction last night decreed "the recession is ending," but apparently not soon enough to move 13 of 41 modern and impressionist art works on offer, leaving the auction house millions of dollars short of pre-sale estimates. Major works by Picasso... More »

MORE ABOUT:
art market • Christie's • Picasso • art auction • Degas • art dealer • Piet Mondrian • Auguste Rodin

  Warhol Collection 
 Stolen From LA Home 

$1 million reward offered after fortune in original Warhol art vanishes

Sep 12, 09 5:58 AM CDT
(Newser) - A multi-million dollar collection of portraits by Andy Warhol has been stolen from a prominent collector's home, the Los Angeles Times reports. Former investment banker Richard Weisman's housekeeper discovered that The Athletes series of 11 portraits—worth as much as a million a pop—had vanished when she entered the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
art • Andy Warhol • theft • painting • art collector

 Madoff's Money Man Sells 
 Rothkos for $310M 

Merkin unloads art, but buyer's identity a mystery

Jul 1, 09 7:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - Ezra Merkin, the financier who pumped billions of his clients' money into Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, is selling more than 10 paintings by Mark Rothko and two sculptures by Alberto Giacometti for $310 million, reports the Wall Street Journal. Some of the proceeds may go to his defrauded investors, who... More »

MORE ABOUT:
art market • fraud • art • Mark Rothko • art collector • Ponzi scheme • Bernard Madoff • Ezra Merkin • Alberto Giacometti

53 Stories


"Collectors are beginning to make the emotional connection between this gruesome body of work and the artist's more attractive portraits of celebrities."
New York


Arts & Living 
TwitterFollow @Newser on Twitter

 
art market • contemporary art • art • Andy Warhol • Sotheby's • Christie's • painting • pop art • Mark Rothko • art auction

from our news partners