you could corrupt a lot with $ 200 million . A Burgess Jubilee superyacht . ( Twoof them at $ 100 million each , actually . ) A couple 12 mi ofinterstate highway . Theservicesof Aaron Rodgers for four years in the NFL .
Or you could purchase a 1964 silkscreenpaintingofMarilyn MonroebyAndy Warholfor a record $ 195 million , which is exactly what one buyer did this calendar week .
The study , titledShot Sage Blue Marilyn , was one of several works rendered by Warhol in the sixties following Monroe ’s death in 1962 . Hebasedthe series on a promotional double of the actress from the 1953 filmNiagara . The portrayal are describe as “ shooting ” because a cleaning woman named Dorothy Podber once entered Warhol ’s studio apartment andfireda gun at a stack of them , leaving a bullet hole in several . ( As the story goes , Podber , notorious in the art tantrum for being unpredictable , askedWarhol if she could “ shoot ” the paintings . think she need to photograph them , he agreed . The Christie ’s offering was unharmed . )
The house painting was consigned to Christie ’s by the landed estate of Swiss art dealers Thomas and Doris Ammann ( the siblings purchase it in 1986 ) and is consider the high amount pay for the piece of work of an American artist at auction . ( Private sales are another story : another Warhol , Shot Orange Marilyn , fetched $ 240 million . )
And if you want to get technical about it , the painting sold for$170 million : The special $ 25 million include auction bridge fee .
Thepreviousrecord bearer was for a 1982 painting by Jean - Michel Basquiat that nabbed $ 110.5 million in 2017 .
So who bought it ? That is probable to remain a mystery , at least for now . The bids were submit by an intermediator , leaving the purchaser undisclosed . Some muse it could be celluloid producer David Geffen or Amazon chair Jeff Bezos , but both have deny it via representatives .
The dealings may seem like the wild indulgences of the first-rate - rich , but consider : the proceeds from the sale will be going to fund health care programs for underprivileged children .
[ h / tVanity Fair ]
