Record-Breaking Warhol & Abloh’s Enduring Appeal
One of Warhol's Marilyn portraits is going up for auction, and new collections from Virgil Abloh
Cultured is a newsletter that gets readers up to speed on the most interesting things going on at the intersection of finance, art, collectibles, NFTs, and more. Cultured is produced by Otis, an alternative investment platform that was recently acquired by Public.com.
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🗞 STORIES OF THE DAY
Warhol’s Marilyn portrait is expected to hit a new auction record
One of Andy Warhol’s iconic silk-screen portraits of Marilyn Monroe is going on the auction block at Christie’s. The asking price is a cool $200 million, a record for any work of art sold at auction.
The work, “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,” is one of five in its series. Its asking price is due, in part, to an exciting backstory: this series of Marilyns were shot with a bullet by performance artist Dorothy Podber. This work survived unscathed.
Warhol works are seen as a bellwether for the art market as a whole, since they come up for auction so often. The current record for a Warhol stands at around $100 million, so if this one hits its asking price, it may push auction prices even higher.
Our Take: Christie’s is betting big on this Warhol in the hopes of showing that the art market is stable and thriving.
Christie’s is orchestrating a massive PR campaign to drum up interest in the works. The company is probably hoping to replicate its success with da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which had an asking price of $100 million but sold for a record $450 million after a massive marketing campaign. The recent uncertainty in Ukraine has dampened some collectors’ confidence in the art market, but a big-dollar, highly publicized Warhol sale could reverse that trend.
After his death, Virgil Abloh continues to attract collectors
Virgil Abloh passed away last November, but his massive output is still making its way to the market. In the past few days, one of his iconic collections came up at Sotheby’s and a new collab with Burton Snowboards dropped.
The Sotheby’s auction features a full set of “The Ten,” Abloh’s first collaboration with Nike. It’s widely considered Abloh’s best collection with the brand and all of the shoes are deadstock, meaning it’s a pretty desirable collection for sneakerheads.
Elsewhere, Abloh dropped a posthumous collection with Burton Snowboards, which feature three Abloh-designed boards. A set of 10 exclusive boards were auctioned off earlier this month and went for as much as $50,000.
Our Take: Virgil Abloh’s death hasn’t stopped his legendary momentum.
Abloh was a staple of the collecting world, a figure who produced work at an almost unbelievable pace. Almost half a year after his death, we’re still seeing new projects drop, a strong reminder of Abloh’s legendary production. With so many successful collections, and the knowledge that new Abloh products are limited, his work will likely continue to shatter auction records.
✨ AROUND THE INTERNET
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