Is named Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, and is one of Andy Warhol’s most famous paintings. It manages to capture the optimism, the fragility and the iconography of the American dream and pop. A masterpiece of contemporary art that will soon have a new owner because in May it will be auctioned.
The piece has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, at the Georges Pompidou in Paris, at the Tate Modern in London or at the Reina Sofia in Madridto give you a few examples, and has now come to Christie’s from the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation in Zurich.
the price of the Marilyn by Andy Warhol
All proceeds from the auction will go to the foundation and the calculation of how much that will be is astronomical. The auction house calculates that it will become one of the 20 most valued works in history because its starting price will be 182 million dollars.
Alex Rotter, president of Christie’s, has affirmed that “together with The Birth of Venus of Botticelli, the Mona Lisa of Da Vinci and Les Demoiselle d’Avignon by Picasso, Marilyn by Warhol is categorically one of the greatest paintings of all time and a unique opportunity to present this masterpiece at auction.”
Although the actress was the artist’s muse (there are numerous works with it as the central axis such as Golden Marilyn, Marilyn Diptychor Shot Marilyns), Warhol never got to portray her in life. After the tragic death in 1962 of the iconic Hollywood actress, Warhol made this as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, based on a publicity image of the film Niagara from 1953by Henry Hathaway.
Now that image can become even more iconic and surpass the highest a Warhol has achieved when Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) sold for $104.5 million in 2013.
Photos | Christie’s