Warhol's Elvis and Brando Works Fetch $151.5 Million at Auction

Reuters ^ | November 13, 2014 | Staff

[C19fan]

Christie's held the biggest art auction in history on Wednesday, selling $853 million worth of contemporary and post-war art, led by a pair of Andy Warhol works featuring multiple images of Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando. The impressive haul beat Christie's high pre-sale estimate of $836 million. It was the fourth successive time since May 2013 that the auction house's post-war and contemporary sale broke the record for the highest-ever total of a single sale.

[C19fan]

Link to the results of the auction and images:

http://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?intsaleid=24479

I guess I am a philistine since I would not pay $10 for any of that art.

[j. earl carter]

The "art" looks like it's just reproductions of photographs. Seems to me, if you really liked this, you could just have someone make you an exact replica for a few hundred dollars.

I think I disagree with you. If I had a blank wall in need of a picture, I might just pay 10 bucks for the Brando (probably not the Elvis).

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

That is neat, I guess, but to me he is overrated big time.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

At least it is not just a soup can.

[ClearCase_guy]

Conceptually, celebrities ARE soup cans.

[DJ MacWoW]

Donate And Keep The Lights On

[wastedyears]

I laugh at people that pay for art. It’s not Michelangelo spending years painting a roof.

I just don’t care for art anymore.

[all the best]

Warhol’s portraits were a composite of photograph, silk screen and hand applied acrylic paint.

[all the best]

I correct myself. It was not a composite so much as it was a process that began with a photograph that became a silkscreen.. Acrylic paint was then applied by Warhol.

[IMR 4350]

Someone actually paid for that Warhol crap?

Proof positive there is a “Gruber” born every day.

[Doulos1]

Just another tulip bulb mania.

[luvbach1]

I can’t think of any reason other than he hung out with celebrites to account for the inflated value of Warhol’s “art.”

[Moltke]

Sheesh, any serious collector knows the only Elvis portraits worth anything are done on black velvet.

[minnesota_bound]

Is there some sort of tax write off? I do not understand how this or any other painting can be worth anywhere that these fools pay for it.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

This guy greatest skill was self-marketing. He partied and snorted coke with the who’s who of Hollywood, that’s the only reason anybody gives a crap about his “art”.

$151 million for Elvis and Brando? If John Q. Citizen had made that and tried to sell it to a gallery in middle America for $20,000 he’d be laughed straight out the door.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Just goes to show, it’s a lot more important who you hang out and snort coke with. There’s really good artists who can’t make a living doing just art while garbage like this sells for millions.