NEW YORK — Andy Warhol’s iconic 1960s painting “White Disaster” sold for $85 million at auction Wednesday evening at Sotheby’s in New York.
The 1963 piece of art was sold after two minutes and a brief duel between two bidders, for a total of $74 million, or $85.4 million with all related costs and fees.
The last time a piece of art from Warhol’s “Death and Disaster Series” was sold in 2013, it set a record for the artist at $105 million.
In May, Warhol’s 1964 portrait of Marilyn Monroe, “Shot Sage Blue Marylin,” was auctioned for $195 million, becoming the most expensive 20th century work ever sold at auction.
Andy Warhols 1964 Shot Sage Blue Marilyn.displayed during a press preview March 21, 2022 in New York. The iconic Andy Warhol silk-screen portrait of Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe is headed to Christies in New York later this spring for $200 milliona record asking price for any artwork at auction. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)
“White Disaster [White Car Crash 19 Times],” as it is formally known, is a work of silkscreen ink and graphite, which depicts the same black and white image of a macabre car accident 19 times on a canvas 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall.
“At the end of 1962, Warhol paints Marilyn Monroe, beginning his fascination with celebrity imagery, but it was really her demise at the end of ’62 and the spectacle around her death that captured Warhol’s fascination,” said David Galperin, head of contemporary art Americas at Sotheby’s.
The piece of art sold Wednesday came from a private collection and Sotheby’s gave no information on the buyer.