Andy Warhol’s Portrait of Chairman Mao Sets Record
Holy Smokes! Some people just have too much money. And no one is dropping any in my direction.
In 1972, Andy Warhol drew 10 portraits of Chairman Mao…just after President Nixon made his historic visit to China.
The Swiss-based Daros Collection – a private collection of Warhol paintings decided to try the free agency market on Warhol’s paintings.
The Chairman Mao picture took in $17.4 million!! That’s the most ever for a Warhol picture.
At the same auction, Warhol’s 1962 "Orange Marilyn" took in $16.2 million and "Sixteen Jackets" took in $15.6 million.
Let’s see that’s $49.2 million in one day for three paintings.
The purpose of the auction was to raise money to pay more money for older Warhol pieces.
???!!!
Some dude in Hong Kong – a real estate tycoon – dropped the $17 mil for Chairman Mao.
I don’t know about you, but that’s too much money for any one piece of art….unless it is something my son painted.
What do you think?
Those people paid lots of money for such a glamorous self portrait! There must be something unique or extraordinary with the medium used to paint those self portraits.
John
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