Warhol’s ‘Marilyn Monroe’ Fetches Record $4 Million

Like a wave in the high seas of a rising art market, an international crowd of contemporary art aficionados left Sotheby’s in its wake and rolled on to Christie’s Wednesday night to witness the opening of the second half of a series of big-ticket auctions.

The crowd of about 1,200 was rewarded with a few moments of high drama when “Shot Red Marilyn,” a vibrantly colored painting of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, brought $4 million from Kazuo Fujii, a Tokyo dealer. The quintessential Pop painting, from the collection of Los Angeles philanthropist Max Palevsky, was valued at $1.5 million to $2.5 million, but bidding soon soared past that figure. A few seconds later, the final bid passed the artist’s record of $3.96 million set last November. Applause burst out as Christopher Burge, Christie’s president and auctioneer, brought down the gavel.

“I wasn’t surprised. There was tremendous interest in the Warhol, but I just wanted it to set a record and it did,” said Martha Baer, head of the auction house’s contemporary art department.

The 1964 painting bears an oft-repeated image in Warhol’s work, but it has the distinction of being one of four “Shot” canvases, named for a shooting incident in the late artist’s studio. “Shot Red Marilyn” was actually shot--right between the eyes--and repaired later. The canvas was in the collection of artist Robert Rauschenberg before Palevsky bought it at the Leo Castelli Gallery in Manhattan.

Another high point in the evening occured when Jasper Johns’ tiny (12-inch-by-10 1/2-inch) canvas, called “Colored Alphabet,” brought $3.5 million from an unidentified European dealer. Burge almost knocked down the painting at around $2 million, but suddenly a cry rang out from the back of the crowded sale room indicating that another bidder had entered the competition. When the sale was complete, a man in the audience whipped out his pocket calculator and announced that the painting cost more than $25,000 per square inch.

Despite such excitement, Wednesday night’s numbers were not as big as Tuesday’s. Christie’s sold 60 artworks for a total of $31.76 million. That figure was well above the most optimistic estimate of $28.8 million but far less than Sotheby’s record-setting $78.6-million sale of 103 items the previous evening. But most pieces offered at Christie’s met or exceeded their estimates--15 of them setting records--and only six lots failed to sell.

Together, the two sales indicate the continuing strength of the contemporary art market, a riskier territory than older periods of art that have been securely established in history. While auction watchers often gasp at sharply escalating contemporary art prices, auction house experts insist that the market is behaving in a controlled manner.

“It’s not berserk. It’s just very, very strong,” Berge said.

One area of strength was seen Wednesday night in works by Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline, which twice broke his record of $2.3 million. No sooner did Kline’s “August Day” sell for $2.75 million than “Scudera,” said to be his last complete painting, brought $2.86 million from New York dealer Allan Stone.

A Jackson Pollock triptych from the Los Angeles collection of Stanley K. and Betty W. Sheinbaum, valued at $1.5 million to $2.5 million, sold for $2.2 million to an anonymous American dealer.

Roy Lichtenstein’s playful 1972 painting, “Things on the Wall,” fetched its predicted price of $1 million from an unidentified American collector.

Among the 15 records, three were claimed by well established women and all three sales roughly doubled estimates. Helen Frankenthaler’s 1973 stained canvas, “Cravat,” valued at $80,000 to $120,000, brought $220,000. Agnes Martin’s pale striped painting, “Untitled 5,” fetched $264,000 instead of the predicted price of $100,000 to $150,000. “King of Spades” by Joan Mitchell, an energetic abstraction valued at $180,000 to $250,000, commanded a price of $462,000.

Earlier in the day, the second part of Sotheby’s contemporary art auction brought $19 million for 323 artworks, bringing the total for Sotheby’s entire sale to $98.3 million.

Christie’s contemporary art sale continues today when 350 paintings, sculptures and drawings, valued at $6 million to $8 million, go under the gavel.

Next week a new wave of art collector and dealers will roll into Manhattan for sales of Impressionist and modern art expected to total as much as $422 million. Sotheby’s will begin the new round of sales on Tuesday night and the following day. Christie’s will take over on Wednesday evening and Thursday.