Andy Warhol’s “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” has become the most expensive work of art of the 20th century ever sold at auction with a price of 195 million dollars. Anyone who thinks of irrational price excesses on the art market is not quite right.
A double icon: “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” by Andy Warhol fetched 195 million dollars at an auction at Christie’s in New York.
People have almost gotten used to such prices by now. Ever since a portrait of Jesus, said to be by Leonardo da Vinci, posted 450 million dollars a few years ago, nothing has really surprised anyone on the art market. And yet one is always amazed when a single work of art breaks the 100 million dollar barrier. This was the case for works by Picasso, Modigliani, but also Munch, Giacometti and Francis Bacon.
Andy Warhol now leads this club with his portrait of Marilyn Monroe. 1964’s “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” fetched a record $195 million at a Christie’s auction in New York this week. This makes it the most expensive work of art ever auctioned off in the 20th century.
Works of classical modernism and post-war art are rare on the market. They are the crowd-pullers of the world’s major museums. And they are regarded as secure values and coveted investments in the art trade.
But what makes this image so desirable? Andy Warhol is known to have worked in series and often used Marilyn Monroe’s likeness as a subject. “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” is neither a painting nor a one-off. It is made using the screen printing process. That speaks against such a high price.
But the picture is to a certain extent a double icon. It not only shows the portrait of a legendary star of the US film industry in Hollywood. It also comes from one of America’s biggest artist stars. This emblematic combination makes the photo-based likeness of the actress, with yellow hair, red lips and turquoise eyeshadow against a turquoise blue background, an immensely attractive work of art.
The work shows a catchy motif with a high recognition value. The artist himself took care of that. He immediately reproduced Marilyn’s face in series in his art factory. This portrait was also created as a series. There are four other versions, all in different color compositions. The MoMA in New York even has a ten-part version. These works burned Marilyn’s face into the collective memory. In this case, the serial effect did not reduce the value, but increased it.
“Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” is also associated with an anecdote that fits perfectly with the Pop Art era. In the year 1964, when it was created, a performance artist friend of Warhol, while fooling around in his factory, shot four of the prints with a small pistol. This gave the series the title «Shot Marilyn». “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” remained intact, the others were repaired.
The provenance of the work can also be seen. Warhol’s turquoise Marilyn was consigned by the foundation of the renowned Zurich gallery Thomas Ammann Fine Art, in whose collection the picture was from 1986.
Anyone who thinks of irrational price excesses on the art market is therefore not quite right. Incomprehensible increases in value apply above all to the market for contemporary art. The offer is not limited, but in the case of long-dead artists like Andy Warhol it is. Also, contemporary works themselves are not yet backed up by a conclusive assessment. But Warhol has long since gone down in art history.
Such works are often referred to as pure trophy art. In this case, it is actually a double trophy: the buyer can consider himself lucky not only as the owner of a prestigious work of art. He can also feel like a benefactor. The noble reason for selling Warhol’s Marilyn is to use the proceeds for charity. That justifies almost every price.