Andy Warhol is among the best-selling artists in the world of auctions.
Last year, 2,100 Warhol works were acquired at auction making him the third most coveted and collected artist in the world, after Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.
GEOGRAPHY OF WARHOL’S AUCTIONS TURNOVER IN 2022 (VALUES IN $) | ©Artprice.com
Not only are the series of his screen prints acquiring more and more value, but also the high-end market has achieved, during 2022, impressive results with the 195 million dollars of the auction sale at Christie’s for the canvas “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” from 1964, became the most expensive 20th century artwork ever traded on the auction market, and the record for a work by Warhol.
The work, purchased by the art dealer Larry Gagosian and painted in 1964, two years after the death of the cinema icon Marylin Monroe, is part of the well-known series “The Shot Marilyns” which includes five portraits of the American actress, four of which were literally taken to “revolve” by Warhol’s friend, Dorothy Podber, during an evening at the Factory.
In second place among the record sales of Warhol’s works, the “White Disaster” canvas purchased for 85.3 million dollars at Sotheby’s in November 2022, already sold at auction at Christie’s in 1987 for 660,000 dollars, multiplying the value by almost 130 times in thirty-five years old.
LOTS SOLD AT AUCTION BY PRICE RANGE IN 2022 | ©Artprice.com
A market, that of the Pop Art artist, which continues to set new records starting from the early 2000s, when already in 2007 the painting “Green Car Crash” from the “Death and Disaster” series was sold at Christie’s for 71.7 Millions of dollars.
As for pop icons, the two records of 2014 had caused a sensation, in which the triptych “Triple Elvis” had been sold in a Christie’s auction for 81.9 million dollars, while the canvas “Four Marlons” had made 69.6 million dollars always in the same auction house.
The artist’s production today attracts major collectors from all over the world, including Asians, so much so that in March 2023 a portrait of Liz Taylor was sold in Tokyo for 20.8 million dollars, the best auction result in Japan for a work of art.
Even other less famous series of the artist, such as “Ladies and Gentlemen”, in which Warhol stages some subjects belonging to the most marginalized communities, have doubled their value within a few years.
This is the sale of 10 works from the latter series auctioned by Christie’s for $90,000 in 2019 and resold for $214,000 in October 2022.