Warhol's Coke bottle caps $222m Pop Art auction
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The New York art market continued a run of soaring prices after a distinctive Andy Warhol Pop Art painting broke its estimated sale price and sold for $33.4m (£20.7m).
Coca-Cola (4) (Large Coca-Cola), part of a series of works completed by Warhol between 1961 and 1962, helped Tuesday night's sale of contemporary art at Sotheby's to reach a recession-defying total of $222.45m.
Works by Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein and Willem de Kooning also sold for high prices. The sales follow last week's record-breaking auction of a nude by Amedeo Modigliani, 1917's La Belle Romaine, which raised $68.9m (£42.8m). Another nude, a 6ft bronze sculpture by Matisse, recently fetched $48.8m (£30.3m) at Christie's – again, the highest amount ever paid for the artist's work.
"Two things were going on this evening: the iconic classical market and the young market," said Tobias Meyer, the worldwide head of contemporary art at Sotheby's. "Both benefited from the great depth of bidding in our sale, and resulted in a very strong total. Most of the bidding was from very smart collectors, some who were long-time [collectors] and others who were new sophisticated entrants from the global community."
The Warhol buyer was not recorded, but it was sold by the collector Elizabeth Rea, who purchased the painting with her late husband, Michael, at Christie's in 1983 for $143,000, according to The New York Times. The record for a Warhol was set at Christie's New York in May 2007 for 1963's Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), which sold for $71.7m.
Other Warhol works sold on Tuesday included The Last Supper ($6.8m) and 1978's Shadows, which sold for $4.2m.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments