An Andy Warhol painting not displayed publicly in over 15 years is expected to sell for over $80,000,000 at Sotheby’s auction house.
The painting, called ‘White Disaster,’ was finished in 1963. To create the piece, Warhol duplicated the same black-and-white image of a car crash 19 times on a massive, 12 foot by 6 foot canvas.
‘White Disaster’ is one of Warhol’s largest paintings and the largest piece in his ‘Death and Disaster’ series created in 1963. The original photograph used for ‘White Disaster’ was featured on the front cover of ‘Newsweek’ on June 3 of that year.
‘Andy Warhol was also deeply preoccupied with the prospect, and idea, of death,’ Sotheby’s stated.
The auction house called the painting ‘a work of unique scale and intensity’ and ‘one of the most provocative and haunting artistic achievements of the 20th century, and arguably the most significant artistic achievement of the artist’s career.’
‘White Disaster’ was first sold about 2 years after Warhol’s death in 1987. It was purchased by Swiss art collector Thomas Ammann for $660,000 in 1989. The piece has been sold multiple times, but has remained in private collections since the first sale.
In 2013, Sotheby’s sold another piece from the same series, ‘Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster),’ for a record-shattering $105,000,000. The painting had been similarly expected to sell for $80,000,000.
That record was broken again this year when one of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portraits, ‘Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,’ sold at Christie’s for $195,000,000 – making it not only the highest selling Warhol painting, but also the highest selling painting by any American artist.
‘White Disaster’ is set to be the centerpiece of Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction scheduled for November 16 at 7pm. The painting will be on public display at the auction house beginning on November 4 until the auction.
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