Warhol leads Christie’s $300 million sale

Andy Warhol
Self-Portrait, 1963-1964
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, in four parts, overall: 40 x 32 in. (101.6 x 81.3 cm.)
Sold for $38,442,500 / £23,449,925 / €26,909,750

Andy Warhol
Self-Portrait, 1986
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas 106-3/4 x 106-1/2 x 1-3/4 inches
Sold for $27,522,500 / £16,788,725 / €19,265,750

Francis Bacon
Three Studies for Self-Portrait titled `Study for Self-Portrait‘ (on the reverse of each panel)
triptych—oil on canvas each: 14 x 12 in. (35.6 x 30.5 cm.)
Painted in 1974.
Sold for $25,282,500 / £15,422,325 / €17,697,750

Urs Fischer
Untitled (Lamp/Bear)
Cast bronze, epoxy primer, urethane paint, acrylic polyurethane topcoat, acrylic glass, gas discharge lamp, stainless-steel framework 275 5/8 x 255 7/8 x 295 1/4 in. (700 x 650 x 749.9 cm.) Executed in 2005-2006. This work is number one from an edition of two plus one artist’s proof.
Sold for $6,802,500 / £4,149,525 / €4,761,750

Warhol leads Christie’s $300 million sale Andy Warhol’s ‘Self-Portrait, 1963-1964’ was sold for $38,4 million at Christie’s auction of contemporary art, May 11th 2011, which realized $301,683,630. Other works by Warhol, Rothko and Bacon also achieved strong prices.]]>

May 12th, 2011, source: Christie’s / theartwolf

As it was expected, Andy Warhol was the star of the auction, and all eight works by the artist offered for sale were sold for a combined total of $91 million. The top lot was his “Self-Portrait, 1963-1964”, which realized $38,442,500, the highest price ever paid for a portrait by the artist. The buyer was an European private collector. According to Christie’s, the work “epitomizes Warhol’s desire to be a “machine” and is the perfect portrait of mass media and consumerism”. A later self-portrait by the artist, labeled by Christie’s as Warhol’s ‘last great masterpiece’, sold for $27,522,500.

“Christie’s remains the Warhol leader”, commented Brett Gorvy, Christie’s International Co-Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, adding that at the sale “a total of seven new world auction records were established, including those for Cindy Sherman, Cy Twombly and (…) Urs Fischer, whose Untitled (Lamp/Bear), realized $6,802,500 – six times the artist’s previous world auction record”.

Fischer’s “Untitled (Lamp/Bear)” was for sure the most impressive work for sale. For several weeks, the giant yellow teddy bear had remained on view in front of the Seagram Building in New York. We guess that its anonymous buyer must have plenty of space in his/her garden.

A good, typical work by Mark Rothko, “Untitled #17”, painted in 1961, sold for a respectable $33,682,500. Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies for Self-Portrait”, which carried an “estimate on request”, realized $25,282,500.

Richard Diebenkorn’s important “Ocean Park #121” broke the auction record for the artist and was sold for $7,698,500. Cy Twombly’s “Untitled” for 1967 also set a new record and realized $15,202,500.

Related content

Andy Warhol’s ‘Men in Her Life’ sells for $63 million (2010)
Francis Bacon: self-portrait (part of the ’10 great self-portraits’ article by theartwolf.com