A record for an icon. Christie’s announced on Monday the sale in May of a portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol estimated at $200 million, which would make it the most expensive work of 20th century art ever sold at auction.
During a press conference on the subject kept secret until the last minute, Christie’s, which dominates with Sotheby’s the New York and world auction market, presented the painting “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” painted in 1964 by Andy Warhol, “the most important 20th century painting to be auctioned in a generation”.
The famous image of Marilyn Monroe, American actress and world icon with a tragic destiny (1926-1962), belongs to the Zurich foundation Thomas and Doris Ammann (a brother and a sister), which will devote the proceeds of the sale “to the improvement of children’s lives around the world through health and education programs,” according to Christie’s. The house values it “around 200 million dollars”.
“With 100% of the sale of a single painting going to charity, this is the highest auction for a philanthropic purpose since the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in 2018,” boasted Christie’s.
A cover more famous than its original
For the anecdote – and the legend – the four “Shot Marilyns” works, including this “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” – a square measuring one meter by one – take their names from an incident that occurred in 1964 in the studio of ‘Andy Warhol in Manhattan: a woman asking the artist if she could “photograph” the paintings (“shoot” in English) shot them with a revolver.
For Georg Frei, president of the Ammann Foundation, “the image of Marilyn by Andy Warhol, certainly more famous today than the original photo from Henry Hathaway’s film Niagara, attests to its intact visual power in this new millennium”. This “spectacular portrait separates the person from the star”, deciphered Georg Frei.
“Marilyn, the woman, is no more, the terrible circumstances of her life and her death are forgotten. All that’s left is that enigmatic smile that brings her closer to another mysterious smile of a distinguished woman, the Mona Lisa,” Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, he believed.
New record after the sale of a painting by Picasso
If it sells well for around $200 million, the “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” will break all records for a 20th century artwork auction.
According to a ranking established by AFP, the absolute record for a sale of a work of art at auction is currently held by Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi”, sold in November 2017 for 450.3 million euros. dollars by Christie’s in New York.
For works from the 20th century, “Les Femmes d’Alger (version 0)”, an oil painting by Pablo Picasso, was sold for 179.4 million dollars in May 2015, still at Christie’s, in the cultural and economic capital of the United States. -United.
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