Works by American pop artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) stole the show at two recent auctions. 200 One Dollar Bills (1962), a grey and black silkscreen work showing 200 life-sized images of dollar bills, sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $43.8 million after a dramatic bidding war.
According to the auction house, the bidding opened at $6 million and was immediately doubled. Five more people in the room jumped in, competing until a phone bidder was declared the winner. At the same auction, a Warhol self-portrait estimated at $1-1.5 million sold for $6.1 million, a fairy tale ending for a work that was hidden away in a cupboard for 42 years by its owner, Cathy Naso, a one-time secretary at Warhol’s famous Factory.
Meanwhile at a Christie’s auction in Los Angeles, a portrait of Michael Jackson sold for $812,000. The artwork, which depicts a smiling Jackson in a jacket with squiggles of red and yellow in his hair, was completed by Warhol in 1984.