Self-portrait was given a very conservative estimate - 4,6-7,5 million

ANDY WARHOL Self-portrait. 1967
Source: telegraph.co.uk

Recently, the auction house Sotheby's announced that one of the top lots of its February auction in London will be a triptych by Francis Bacon (Francis Bacon), not visible to the audience of almost half a century. Christie's is not far behind: According to the newspaper The Daily Telegraph, he arranged an auction of modern art led hitherto unknown self-portrait of Andy Warhol (Andy Warhol). Work was never exhibited or published, information about it is not even an exhaustive catalog-Raisonné master of pop art. Now the picture is part of an American congregation on the sales history is known only that in 1974 the canvas was bought from one of the main dealers of the artist and Leo Castelli (Leo Castelli). The auction house gave the work estimate 3-5 million pounds (4,6-7,5 million dollars).

Portrait was created in 1967. He belongs to a series of 11 works (made in different colors), most of them are collections of prestigious museums, including the Tate Gallery, Contemporary Art Museum of San Francisco and the Foundation Beyeler in Basel spouses. As many as eight copies were shown in a retrospective, hosted by the New York MOMA after his death in 1987: According to the curator Kynaston MakShayna (Kynaston McShine), this image is as an "icon", as Warhol Marilyn. Incidentally, the first canvases in this series were exhibited at the American pavilion at Expo 1967 in Montreal.

There is also more than 40 self-portraits by Warhol, "starting point" for that was the same photo. True, they are smaller in size (56 x 56 vs. 183 x 183). In November 2009, the jeweler Laurence Graff (Laurence Graff) paid for one of them 6.1 million dollars. That canvas also appeared at the auction for the first time - assistant artist Kathy Neyso (Cathy Naso) kept it in his more than forty years. Logically, purchased from a self-portrait Castelli has cost more than $ 15 million.

surprising is the fact that the Commission on the authentication of works of Andy Warhol, famous for its extreme severity, recognized the work of a genuine - even though the lack of entries in the directory, reasonable and signature.

In addition, the time of sale was very well chosen: the market Warhol now feels very confident. In November, at New York auctions of contemporary art works of 65 artists have brought a total of over $ 200 million (pre-evaluation 92.5 million).

at public auction to appear only three "big "self-portrait. One in 1984 was bought megakollektsionerom Charles Saatchi (Charles Saatchi) for 70 thousand pounds since the canvas has changed ownership twice. In 1998, the dealer Ernst Beyeler (Ernst Beyeler) has acquired another kind of work for 2.4 million dollars and the third on canvas was sold in 2004 for 6.95 million.

Material prepared by Julia Maksimova, AI

Sources: telegraph.co.uk , artinvestment.ru