At a Christie's auction in New York on Monday night, local time, a portrait created by famous American artist Andy Warhol for the late Hollywood actor Marilyn Monroe was sold for $195 million, one of the most expensive paintings in history and the highest auction record of American artists' works to date**
In this 1964 work shot sage blue Marilyn, Warhol took the promotional photo of the film Niagara made by Monroe in 1953 as the prototype, and painted the actress with pink face, blue eye shadow and red lips, and the background was mouse tail grass blue.
This work is remarkable because it is one of Warhol's shot Marilyns. It is a series of oil paintings with Monroe as the protagonist. It was created after Warhol was injured by a visitor with a revolver gun at his studio "the factory" on East 47th street, New York.
At least four bidders competed for the work. After about four minutes of bidding, Larry Gagosian, the owner of gaoguxuan Gallery, finally won. Prior to the auction, Christie's valued the work at $200 million.
Warhol's work is now one of the most expensive works of art ever. The auction exceeded the $110.5 million discharged from a skull painting by Warhol's disciple Jean Michel Basquiat in 2017 and broke the record of $105.4 million set by Warhol's other painting in 2013.
However, the highest auction record in the U.S. art market so far is still the Salvator Mundi created by Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian Renaissance art giant. Christie's sold the famous painting for $450 million in 2017, which was allegedly bought by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.