In an otherwise interesting story on the whereabouts of the disputed painting 315 Johns, a strange meme floating around the press gets repeated. That meme has Warhol’s Farrah Fawcett portraits worth $30m . . . each.
That number seems to have crept into the tabloid press based upon the sales of two Warhol Self Portraits in the Spring of 2011. And it might have been buttressed by recent prices for Liz and Marilyn works. Though if Laurence Graff bought a silver Liz in November for $16.3m, and Jackies sell for $1 to $2m (with a rare round example making $3.7m,) and other examples of the later celebrity portraits selling for under $1m, it is hard to imagine that one, or even two, Farrah Fawcett works could be valued at $30m.