Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol – $170m (£136m) at Christie’s New York.
With four day sales still to come at the time of going to press at Christie's, as well as Sotheby’s equivalent auctions to follow this week, the market reacted positively to some high-end consignments, in particular two collections offered in dedicated sales: those of the late Anne H Bass and the Swiss dealers Thomas and Doris Ammann.
The former included a record for Edgar Degas when one of his ballet dancer sculptures took $36m (£29.3m), breaking the previous high which had stood since 2008, and the sale on May 12 was led by a view of the Houses of Parliament by Claude Monet at $66m (£53.7m).
The latter collection offered two days earlier generated some even bigger numbers as an Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe silkscreen fetched the second-highest auction price of all time.
One of five different coloured versions of the artist’s ‘Shot Marilyn’ portraits, it was knocked down at $170m (£136m) to dealer Larry Gagosian according to Bloomberg.
Making $195m (£158.5m) with fees, it stands only behind the $400m (£304.2m) for Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi sold in the same rooms in 2017.
£1 = $1.23
