Andy Warhol’s monumental canvas “Sixty Last Suppers” could fetch $50 million when it comes up for auction at Christie’s in New York next month.
The 1986 work, made a year before the Pop artist’s death, depicts Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper" 60 times in black and white. The huge grid -- 32 feet wide -- has 10 columns and six rows. It will be offered during Christie’s evening sale of postwar and contemporary art on Nov. 15.
The work is guaranteed by a third party, according to the auction house, so it’s guaranteed to sell. The question is: For how much?
Warhol got the idea for a group of works based on Leonardo’s famous late 15th century painting from Alexander Iolas, a Milan-based art dealer, according to Christie’s. The artist made more than 100 different Last Supper works, some freehand, some showing outlines, others in silkscreen. In 1986, 22 of these works were displayed in a space across from the Santa Maria delle Grazie church, home of the original, and viewed by 30,000 people.
Christie’s declined to comment on the seller’s identity. The painting once belonged to mega art dealer Larry Gagosian, who exhibited it in Abu Dhabi in 2010. Gagosian’s “support and collaboration” was also noted by Museo del Novecento in Milan, where the work was shown earlier this year.
The Warhol auction record belongs to “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster),” a 1963 silkscreen painting that sold for $105.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2013. The most expensive “Last Supper" at auction -- a 40-by-40-inch canvas -- went for $18.7 million to billionaire jeweler Laurence Graff.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.