Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe painting could fetch $200 million at Christie's

CAIRO – 9 May 2022: On May 10, Christie's auction will display Marilyn Monroe's “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” painting by American artist Andy Warhol, which is expected to sell for $200 million.

If sold, this makes it the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold at an auction.

During his long and busy career Warhol produced a large number of masterpieces, including the 40-inch 1964 Marilyn Monroe paintings, all five of which are gorgeous.

However, it can be said that the “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” painting is the best of all the paintings that embodied the late American actress.

Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe paintings proved so popular that in 1967 Warhol's studio released a set of 10. The set was priced at $500 and several sets were divided so that the prints could be sold individually.

As for that original set of five Marilyn Monroe paintings, it gained fame through a bizarre incident. In 1964, a performance artist named Dorothy Podber entered Warhol's studio. She saw four paintings leaning against the wall. She asked to "shoot", then pulled a gun from her bag and fired a bullet between Marilyn Monroe's eyes in one of the paintings. Eventually, a stunned Warhol restored them to varying degrees, and the paintings became known as "Shot Marilyns," according to the artsy website.

There is no doubt that this incident added then and now to the value of these works. The irony was that only four years later, specifically in 1968, in the same place, Valerie Solanas pulled a pistol from her bag and fired, but this time, it was Warhol who was shot and nearly died.

Andy Warhol, born on August 6, 1928, is one of the most famous American artists of the second half of the twentieth century.

Warhol was a silkscreen painter and filmmaker associated with the Pop Art Movement in the United States. He founded the magazine "Interview" in 1973, and there is a museum in his name, which contains many of his works, and was opened in 1994.