Warhol Works of Art Still Very Pop-ular
November 9, 2010 Fun Stuff

According to this story from Bloomberg,Pop Art is obviously still very in demand!

Warhol Coke Bottle Goes for $35.4 Million at Sotheby’s Contemporary Sale

An almost 7-foot-tall Andy Warhol painting of a glass Coca-Cola bottle sold for $35.4 million tonight at Sotheby’s in New York.  The price fizzed past the projected $25 million high estimate but fell short of the $71.7 million paid for a Warhol green-hued painting of a car crash at Christie’s International in 2007.

The sale comes amid the buzz generated by yesterday’s action at rival auction house Phillips de Pury & Co., which sold a 1962 Warhol, with repeating grainy images of Elizabeth Taylor, for $63 million.  The Coke painting was also created in 1962. The seller, curator and artist Elizabeth Richebourg Rea, acquired the piece for $143,000 at Christie’s in 1983.

Warhol has been an art-market star for years, particularly since contemporary works peaked in the first half of 2008.

“Warhol has been the driver of the postwar- and contemporary-art market since the decline,” said art adviser Mary Hoeveler before the sale. “The appetite at the very top seems insatiable. You can name your price.”

Tonight’s painting, titled “Coca-Cola [4][Large Coca- Cola],” takes its plebeian subject matter and composition from a soft-drink advertisement Warhol found in Pittsburgh’s Byzantine Catholic World newspaper for the Quaker State Coca- Cola Bottling Company. Warhol made four paintings of Coke bottles, one of which belongs to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the artist’s hometown.

The Warhol was offered early in tonight’s contemporary-art auction, projected to tally as much as $214.5 million. A yellow 1955 Mark Rothko painting is projected to sell for as much as $30 million. The work belongs to Boston-based architect Graham Gund, according to dealers.

———————

We can attest that our Pop Art Style custom pet portraits are still the most Pop-ular among our clients, although we don’t do many that are 7-feet tall!

Comments are closed
*