Warhol’s Blue Marilyn breaks records: art investment market is ‘on a roll’

Blue Marilyn

This year’s spring auction season in New York was billed as a key test of the health of the art market, said DealBook in The New York Times – “an indication of whether top-quality trophies can continue to command high prices, no matter the instability of the world”. The “bellwether” work kicking off proceedings was Andy Warhol’s 1964 silk-screen of Marilyn Monroe, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, which sold for $195m – breaking records as both “the highest auction price ever for an American artist” and the most expensive 20th century work. That was taken as a good omen, amid the current “surfeit of blue-chip art”. As Philip Hoffman of advisory firm The Fine Art Group observed, “there’s been a huge amount held back for two years, and there’s a huge amount of pent-up demand from new clients”. He reckons Manhattan’s two-week auction marathon could raise $2bn.

Four-minute wonder

The iconic Marilyn painting, one of a series of portraits Warhol made of the Hollywood star after her death in 1962, was sold “in just under four minutes”, said Waiyee Yip on Insider. Christie’s called it a tribute to Warhol’s “pervasive power”. The painting was bought by mega-dealer Larry Gagosian, who declined to say whether he was acting for himself or a client. But Asian bidding was notably “thin” throughout the sale, said Katya Kazakina on Artnet – “the Hong Kong salesroom was quiet when the Marilyn came up” and “Middle Eastern bidders didn’t seem to materialise either”.

Inflation hedge?