Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Warhol Optical Series Tests Upper End of Market at Christie’s

October 4, 2012 by Marion Maneker

Warhol’s are coming out of the woodwork this week for the Fall sales in New York. Judd Tully has Christie’s $35m Statue of Liberty work from 1962. The work is both from an important—and rare—series and boasts an appealing provenance:

This large, almost-square painting is one of 10 tagged in the first volume of the Andy Warhol catalogue raisonne as “Optical Paintings,” all of them executed in 1962. The most famous is probably “Optical Car Crash” from the Kunstmuseum in Basel, which is also closely related to “Red Explosion (Atomic Bomb)” (1963), featuring a giant mushroom cloud in similar repetitions. But only one other painting of this rarified Optical Paintings group from 1962 depicts the Statue of Liberty (it’s at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh), making the Christie’s lot all the more desirable as the quintessential American trophy (it will go on offer a mere two weeks after the 2012 Presidential election).

The painting also boasts a rock solid provenance: It was first owned by the Berlin super collector Erich Marx, and later handled by the storied Zurich dealer — and huge Warhol booster — Thomas Ammann. It next resided in the Switzerland-based Daros Collection and remained there until two years ago when Brett Gorvy, Christie’s chairman and international head of Post-War and Contemporary art, brokered the picture in a private transaction to an American collector who is now, in turn, selling the painting without any financial guarantee.

Christie’s Will Offer Andy Warhol’s Classic 3-D “Statue of Liberty” (Artinfo)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Christie's First Open ResultsChristie's First Open Results
  • ABMB Vernissage SightingsABMB Vernissage Sightings
  • Vernissage TV: ARCO MadridVernissage TV: ARCO Madrid
  • Hirst Provokes While Christie’s Quietly Tests His MarketHirst Provokes While Christie’s Quietly Tests His Market
  • London Wins Museum Attendance with 2 Out of Top 5London Wins Museum Attendance with 2 Out of Top 5
  • Artprice’s Chart on 2012 Auction House Market ShareArtprice’s Chart on 2012 Auction House Market Share

Filed Under: Artists

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Restituted Van Gogh Portrait from London Collection to Sell at Christie’s
  • Christie’s to Sell Its First Fully Digital Work of Art in Test of Emerging Market
  • Podcast
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • Christie's to Sell $12m Yves Klein to Benefit The Water Academy
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor