Posted on 07/28/2017 10:23:27 AM PDT by nickcarraway
"Little Electric Chair" print was "rolled up in a tube," could be worth millions
Alice Cooper discovered an Andy Warhol silkscreen print that could be worth millions of dollars "rolled up in a tube" in a storage locker, The Guardian reports. The "Little Electric Chair" print was part of Warhol's Death and Disaster series and, coincidentally, had been laying around a facility for over 40 years alongside Cooper's Seventies-era electric chair stage prop.
Cooper and Warhol became friends in the early Seventies after the rocker moved to New York City. Warhol even came to one of Cooper's concerts where he used the electric chair to fake an execution. As Cooper's longtime manager Shep Gordon explained, "Andy was kind of a groupie, and so was Alice. They loved famous people. So they started a relationship, and they loved to hang out."
However, it was Cooper's girlfriend at the time, model Cindy Lang, who purchased the "Little Electric Chair" print from Warhol. Warhol based his print (dated either 1964 or 1965) on a 1953 press photo of the death chamber at Sing Sing prison where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed that year for sharing secrets with the Soviet Union.
Lang apparently handed the print off to Gordon, but it quickly got lost amongst Cooper's vast assortment of gear. "At the time Alice is making two albums a year and touring the rest of the time," Gordon said. "It was a rock & roll time; none of us thought about anything. He ends up going into an insane asylum for his drinking and then leaves New York for L.A. Alice says he remembers having a conversation with Warhol about the picture. He thinks the conversation was real, but he couldn't put his hand on a Bible and say that it was."
Gordon only remembered Cooper had the piece four years ago after having dinner with an art dealer. While it was unclear where the print was, Gordon noted that, luckily, Cooper's mother remembered seeing it go into storage.
View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow Walker Reader @walkermag 40 years later, Alice Cooper's Warhol electric chair screenprint found "rolled up in a tube": http://wac.mn/2uu6FY8 3:02 PM - Jul 24, 2017 29 29 Retweets 33 33 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy While Cooper's "Little Electric Chair" is unsigned, Warhol expert Richard Polsky said he is certain the piece is authentic (the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts stopped authenticating work in 2011 after a dispute with a collector). In 1972, Lang paid $2,500 for the piece. In 2015, another "Little Electric Chair" print sold at auction for $11.6 million.
Gordon said that after Cooper learned of the Warhol's potential value, he declined to hang something so expensive in his house, though apparently the rocker is now reconsidering. "You should have seen Alice’s face when Richard Polsky's estimate came in," Gordon said. "His jaw dropped and he looked at me. 'Are you serious? I own that!'"
11 million bucks. Nice find!
He thinks the conversation was real, but he couldn’t put his hand on a Bible and say that it was.”
Ironic considering Cooper is a Christian.
Awesome!
I took my son to see Alice Coooper (my sons’ first REAL concert) a couple months ago and it was absolutely amazing.
I thought he was only interested in antique chairs?
I wonder if his ex-girlfriend would like it back.
Was it more theater than music?
Even Christians have a past. Sometimes it isn’t pretty. Why would you consider this ironic?
It’s an old electric chair so it still counts.
You should see his car collection.
She’s dead so probably not.
What Jesus said about oaths
That’s nothing. I found a print of dogs playing poker in a storage unit one time. What they were doing playing poker in a storage unit...
He is not saying something anti-Christian. He is saying he has a vague recollection, but he can’t be sure it’s accurate. In the U.S, people swear on the Bible in court.
Same thing I thought. The article says his then girlfriend bought it.
Or maybe it’s just another example of the shoddy work that passes for journalism now and what they really meant was that Alice bought it because she liked/wanted it.
Agreed.
Cindy Lang died in January.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetimesherald/obituary.aspx?pid=183427211
I have a rare framed painting of Elvis on black velvet hanging in my man cave...........
From the article it’s not so clear whether Alice Cooper properly “owns” the Warhol piece. It says Cindi lang “handed it off” to his manager and it ended up stored with his stuff. Does that mean she made a gift of it to Alice Cooper, or did it still belong to her? Probably difficult to prove her ownership but her estate/heirs might get into a fight about it..... turns out she only passed away in Jan. this year (2017). Could there still be any legal issue with ownership? Cindi Lang’s obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetimesherald/obituary.aspx?pid=183427211
Being an art school grad I enjoy Warhol but am amused that it’s such a big, big deal now. It was all a put-on, Warhol knew it. The whole thing was tantamount to what some would call a larp these days.
Alice Cooper wasn’t all that a big thing for me, he has a couple cool songs I guess. There are a few LA Punk bands that remind me a bit of AC in some way that I was a big fan of at the time and still enjoy. In particular, your comment about a car collection made me think of Social Distortion and Mike Ness.
Social Distortion - I Was Wrong
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