The painting ONE DOLLAR BILL (Silver Certificate ) by Andy Warhol in 1962, which was once owned by his Manager Fred Hughes beats its 18 million POUND high estimate to a 20.9 million pound in London’s Sotheby auction last week. This was once bought by a collector at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich in 1997. Its Followed by Francis Becons, Self Potrait of 1975 and THREE Studies for a Self Potrait , which made 15.3 million pound and 14.7 million pound respectively.
Andy Warhol’s ONE DOLLAR Bill
Tonight in London Sotheby’s sold £130.4 million ($203.6 million) worth of art at its contemporary art auction, handily trumping the £95.6 million ($150.1 million) that its arch-rival, Christie’s.
Another money-themed Warhol also performed well. The artist’s late Dollar Signs (1981), an array of 25 of those symbols on a teal background and some 90 inches tall, sold for £6.93 million ($10.8 million). (The sale, for the record, was, in part, loosely themed around currency and featured quite a few money-related pieces by Warhol.)
Francis Becons THREE Studies for a Self Potrait
Speaking of money, a tiny painting of four eggs on a plate by Lucian Freud from 2002, which the artist gave as a gift to the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire in 2004, sold for nearly 10 times its low estimate. It was expected to sell for a minimum of £100,000 ($156,000), but made £989,000 ($1.54 million), as Sotheby’s proudly noted in a mid-sale press release.