Andy Warhol World Record Shattered at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS—Andy Warhol's Endangered Species, 1983, set a new world record for a numbered edition when it sold for $725,000 in Heritage Auctions’ New York debut of Modern & Contemporary Art. The Oct. 28 auction—the first of two such sales planned this season—garnered more than $3.8+ million on just 21 lots. The firm’s second Modern & Contemporary Art offering takes place Nov. 14 in Dallas.
“New York’s Modern & Contemporary Art community gave Heritage Auctions a warm, warm welcome,” said Leon Benrimon, Heritage’s New York Director of Modern & Contemporary Art. “We put together a strong selection—unique artworks you couldn’t find anywhere else—and it’s clear collectors respected the selection and the overall character of what Heritage can bring to market.”
A stunning discovery, Robert Motherwell’s Untitled (Ochre with Black Line), 1972-73/1974, sold for $965,000 in its auction debut following more than 40 years in a private collection. Another extraordinary find, Surveillance Camera, 2010, by Ai Weiwei, the famed Chinese dissident artist, sold for $401,000. “Ai Weiwei’s works rarely come to auction and we were happy to give it the exposure it deserved,” Benrimon said.
Blonde Vivienne (Filled In), 1985/1995, by Tom Wesselmann sold for $317,000, more than double its $150,000 estimate. Warhol’s silkscreen Lola Jacobson, 1980—an iconic society portrait—ended at $185,000.
A famed and long-considered missing early Mel Ramos painting depicting Batman at his baleful best, A Sinister Figure Lurks in the Dark, 1962, which surfaced in Northern California, realized $173,000. The painting was consigned by California resident Bill Steinfelt, who received the painting in 1962 from Ramos himself, trading a pile of comic books for it. Ramos was an undiscovered young painter at the time, then a teacher. The series from which the painting originates is considered the artist’s first mature work.
Reflections on Crash, 1990, from Roy Lichtenstein’s Reflections series, sold for $161,000 against a $100,000 estimate; Warhol’s $ (Quadrant), 1982, a unique screen print in colors, sold for $131,000; and Untitled (X on Brown Paper), circa 1933-34, by Arshile Gorky ended at $125,000.
Additional highlights include, but are not limited to:
Untitled, 1994, by Sam Francis: Realized: $106,250.
Study for 'Wall Explosion I', 1965, but Lichtenstein: Realized: $100,000.
Balancier, 1973, by Alexander Calder: Realized: $100,000.
Heritage Auctions’ Nov. 14 Modern & Contemporary Art Part II Auction presents more than 300 lots, including Campbell’s Soup Box (Chicken Rice), 1986 by Warhol (est. $150,000+), one of 32 separate works by the artist in the sale.
Heritage Auctions is the largest auction house founded in the United States and the world’s third largest, with annual sales of approximately $900 million, and 950,000+ online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and receive access to a complete record of prices realized, with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.
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