Purchased by a
private buyer in 1962 for just $250, Andy Warhol's iconic
Lemon Marilyn sold Wednesday night at
Christie's New York for a record-breaking $28,040,000,
according to ArtNet.com. The latest "flavor" to be
auctioned off from Warhol's series of 13 "Marilyn"
silk-screen portraits—which includes Grape,
Cherry, and Mint—Lemon eclipses
the sale last November of Orange Marilyn, which
went for $16.3 million.
The big winner of
the evening, however, was Warhol's Green Car Crash,
which fetched a whopping $71.7 million. All in all,
Christie's sale of postwar and contemporary art
brought in a jaw-dropping $384.6 million, topping the $254.9
million registered by Sotheby's the night before,
according to Bloomberg.com. However, Mark Rothko's
White Center, which sold at Sotheby's for
$72.8 million, represents the highest price ever for
postwar art.
Warhol's previous
highest-selling piece was Mao, a 1972 portrait that
brought in $17.4 million last November. Both
Lemon Marilyn and Green Car Crash
were won by phone bidders. (The Advocate)
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