When 200 dollars all of a sudden fetches more than $40 million at the auction block, that’s something that would appear to be a great return on one’s investment. Lofty selling prices, however, are to be expected when it comes to the work of pop art icon Andy Warhol.
As The New York Times reports, Warhol’s “200 One Dollar Bills” hit the auction block at Sotheby’s and sold for a staggering $43.8 million. The silkscreen painting, made in 1962, was among Warhol’s earlier works. Measuring approximately 80 inches by 92 inches (an image of it may be seen here), the condition of the painting was reportedly pristine.
Reuters writes that the piece sold for about four times the estimated selling price, underscoring the late artist’s ongoing popularity and the art community’s interest in his body of work. The same auction featured a self-portrait Warhol had given to a friend who stashed it in a closet for four decades. That piece sold for more than $6 million, itself four times the estimated high selling price.
Photo courtesy of National Archives, via Wikimedia Commons
