Auction of works from the Andy Warhol Foundation fetches over $17 million at Christie’s New York
November 14, 2012 by All Art News
Filed under Art Market
NEW YORK (AP).- The first in a series of live and online auctions to raise money for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York collected over $17 million Monday.
The auction at Christie’s featured 354 works by Warhol ranging from prints to photographs, some of which have not been seen by the public. Online auctions will begin in February.
Leading the sale was “Endangered Species: San Francisco Silverspot,” a print that fetched over $1.2 million, Christie’s said. Other highlights included “Jackie,” a screen print and paper collage of Jacqueline Kennedy that sold for over $626,000, more than double its high estimate of $300,000.
Christie’s said the auction saw a strong demand for unique photographs and prints with many exceeding high estimates, including “Self-Portrait in Fright Wig,” estimated at $12,000 to $18,000, which sold for $50,000.
Endangered Species: San Francisco. Silverspot stamped with the Estate of Andy Warhol and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. stamps and numbered ‘PA29.007’ (on the overlap) and numbered again ‘PA29.007’ (on the stretcher) synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm.). Painted circa 1983. Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
The foundation said the money raised for its endowment from the sales would allow it to expand support of the visual arts, fulfilling Warhol’s purpose in establishing it.
“The new level of global access to Andy Warhol’s work that this series of sales makes possible, along with the bolstering of our philanthropic base, makes this an important moment for the Foundation and indeed for the world of art,” said Joel Wachs, President of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Michael Straus, the foundation’s Chairman of the Board, welcomed the results of the first auction.
“It has allowed us to increase our grant-making capacity at a time when the arts community needs support and has engaged an ever-expanding audience with the art of Andy Warhol,” Straus said.
