Sotheby’s is hoping that a group of Warhol portraits of women (Bridget Bardot, Debbie Harry, Sao Schlumberger and Judy Garland) will ride the coattails of this early Liz portrait that’s estimated at $30m. A year ago, Sotheby’s sold a yellow version of the work for $20m which hammered below the low estimate. At the time, the yellow color of the work was the explanation for the price. Here’s Bloomberg on the provenance of this green example:

“Liz #3” was exhibited with five other portraits of the actress from the same series in one of Warhol’s first shows at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati in 1963.

Seven years later, Warhol chose “Liz #3” for his first major international retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum in California, which is now the Norton Simon Museum. The show subsequently traveled to the Tate Gallery in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

It was purchased by a private collector in Turin, Italy, in 1972, and was seen by the public once, at the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland in 2000, Sotheby’s (BID) said.

Warhol’s Screen Sirens, Socialites May Fetch $57 Million  (Bloomberg)