http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061116/ap_ ... ol_auction

NEW YORK - Andy Warhol's iconic image of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, considered one of his most sensational pieces of the 1970s, sold for $17.4 million, a world auction record for the artist, Christie's auction house said.

The portrait was offered by the Swiss-based Daros Collection, owner of one of the greatest private holdings of Warhol paintings, and was sold Wednesday to Joseph Lau of Hong Kong. It brought in about $5 million more than expected, Christie's said.

The silk-screen portrait, measuring 81 inches by 61 inches and showing Mao in a dark blue jacket against a light blue background, was part of the auction house's evening sale of postwar and contemporary art.

Warhol's 1962 work, "Orange Marilyn," went for $16.2 million, about $1 million over estimate. "Sixteen Jackies," from 1964, sold for $15.6 million, which was expected.

The Daros Collection, based in Zurich, Switzerland, is known to focus on a small group of artists including Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin and Warhol. Its Warhol collection includes "210 Coke Bottles," "Blue Liz as Cleopatra" and "AtomicBomb."

Christie's said the board of the Daros Collection was selling the "Mao" painting "to raise proceeds for future acquisition of prime works from the 1960s."

"Herr Heyde," by German artist Gerhard Richter, sold for $2.8 million.

The largest sale of the evening was an abstract 1977 painting by Willem de Kooning, called "Untitled XXV." It sold for $27 million, a world auction record for postwar art, Christie's said. The buyer's name was not released.

The previous postwar record-holder was David Smith's "Cubi XXVIII," which sold for $23.8 million at Sotheby's in 2005. The previous Warhol record-holder was another "Orange Marilyn," which was auctioned for $17.3 million by Sotheby's in 1998.

Wednesday's auction prices include commissions of 20 percent of the first $200,000 and 12 percent thereafter.



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opinions?

Mao is overrated, unless someone thinks its cool to be the leader of a genocide.

doesn't this guy live near me or something?

They're both dead

I like Warhol's sensibility more than his actual work. I think it's too easy to interpret his paintings as nothing more than reproductions (which they are individually) but his style is easily identifiable. It actually had a huge influence on a lot of the filmmakers of the 60s. You can even see it in Tarantino's and Wong Kar Wai's work also. It's easy to replicate (basically film quick cuts of Holiday Inn, Subway, or Pepsi signs) and it's flashy and very sexy - like Warhol's art. I dig it.

Who the fuck spends 17 million dollars on a painting?

Some people will never understand my desire to accumulate a multi-thousand CD collection. I will never understand paying a small countries' annual budget for a piece of paper with some paint on it.

Stuff like this should be in museums anyway, not some rich asshole's house.

That would certainly seem to make more sense, wouldn't it?

In general, I think Warhol's work belongs in some rich asshole's house.

Warhol's artwork is not even close to the most interesting thing about him. It's actually funny to me that they call it his work when it was done by a group of people and one of his motivations was about getting rid of the entire concept of the artist and the ego of the artist as individual creator. Very interesting social commentary but nothing very impressive about his actual visual work.

o rly?

no personally I'm not that impressed, they are prints not paintings

This might be your best post ever, bammer.

Warhol's work seems to garner praise due strictly to the fame of Warhol's name.

Well I do what I can.