Eagle-eyed Colin Gleadell was paying attention to prices at last week’s sales in New York:

There wasn’t much by Damien Hirst on offer, but a painting of Bill Gates looking at the famous shark in a formaldehyde tank, which had sold at Sotheby’s landmark Hirst auction in September 2008 for £313,200, or $563,000 at the time, now sold at Sotheby’s for just $278,500, less than half the original price. […]

But who could deny what a great investment Warhol has been? A large 1982 painting of guns, bought in 1997 for $105,000, sold for $4.5 million. A rare yellow Brillo soap pad box from 1964 trebled its estimate to sell for $3 million. It had cost just $41,800 in 1995. This price, a record for a Brillo box sculpture, may have been boosted by the recent declaration by the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board that 105 later Brillo box fabrications are no longer considered original Warhols, but copies, making the originals that much rarer.

New York sales: Andy Warhol leads recovery (Telegraph)