American artist, Andy Warhol, pictured in 1973 with his dachshund, Archie.
Andy Warhol is a name that has become synonymous with Pop Art, and he is widely hailed as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He achieved significant success in his own lifetime with his now-iconic works, and his fame has only continued to grow in the decades since his death.
Warhol worked in numerous different mediums throughout his life, and he was particularly interested in printmaking, being drawn to its potential for repetition and mass-production. Prints now account for 75% of Andy Warhol’s work sold at auction, where the majority of them fetch between £10,000 and £50,000.
Below is a list of Andy Warhol’s five most expensive prints sold at auction. If you own an Andy Warhol print and want to know more about how much it might be worth, or how to sell it, get in touch with Mark Littler today.
Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn)
Andy Warhol was fascinated by the mixture of glamour and tragedy that Marilyn Monroe symbolised, and during the media frenzy that surrounded her apparent suicide in 1962, Warhol made his first prints of her. Monroe remained a favourite subject of the artist for many years; his numerous works featuring her image reinforced the actress’ iconic status, whilst also highlighting the way in which she had become a product to be marketed by Hollywood and consumed by the public, possibly at the expense of her own life.
These 10 screenprints in colours were created in 1967, five years after Monroe’s death. Each image is suffused with a wild array of colours, presenting the viewer with several different versions of the film star and model, thereby reinforcing the artificiality of celebrity. The prints quickly became one of Warhol’s most iconic series, and they account for seven out of his 12 most expensive prints sold at auction. This particular set of prints was sold by Christie’s in May 2022 for £3,350,925, more than £1.3 million above the top estimate.
Marilyn Monroe sold by Christie’s in 2022
Endangered Species
This set of 10 prints dates from 1983, just four years before Warhol’s unexpected death, by which time he had become one of the most popular and successful artists of his time. Unlike much of Warhol’s other work, these prints are not images of famous faces or pop culture, but rather of animals at risk of extinction.
The series featured animals listed in the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and it was designed to raise awareness of the threat these creatures were facing. Warhol’s striking screenprints were executed in his usual Pop Art style, elevating the animals to the level of the icons and celebrities he usually used as subjects, and at the same time bringing them into the public consciousness to emphasise the threat they faced because of humans. The prints remain extremely popular in today’s market, with this set being sold by Sotheby’s in November 2024 for £2,856,852.
Endangered Species sold by Sotheby’s in 2024
The Kiss (Bela Lugosi)
Before Andy Warhol began producing work designed for art galleries, he was an extremely successful commercial illustrator. The advertising culture that surrounded him during this time would prove invaluable to his later work, providing him with an understanding of mass media and consumer culture which he would use as the basis for much of his subsequent art.
During his time as an illustrator, Warhol would also have encountered screen printing, a technique traditionally associated with commercial uses. Warhol started experimenting with it to produce fine art in the early 1960s, and he quickly became one of its most famous pioneers. This print dates from 1964, and it’s one of his first experiments with the medium which would later come to define his career. The Kiss (Bela Lugosi) is a still from the 1931 Dracula movie, and it was sold by Sotheby’s in May 2012 for £2.8 million, more than three times its top estimate.
The Kiss sold by Sotheby\s in 2012
Flowers
According to Warhol’s friend, Henry Geldzahler, he suggested Warhol paint flowers after visiting him in his famous studio, the Factory, one day. Geldzahler said: “I looked around the studio and it was all Marilyn and disasters and death.” He then turned to Warhol and said: “Andy, maybe it’s enough death now”, before opening a nearby magazine, pointing to a picture of some flowers, and suggesting, “Well, how about this?”
Whether the story is true or not, one thing is certain: Warhol’s vivid, semi-abstracted flowers have become one of his best-loved and most iconic motifs due to their cheerful simplicity and dramatic contrasts. This set of 10 prints from 1970 was sold by Christie’s in April 2023 for £1,528,892.
Flowers sold by Christie’s in 2023
Mao
These 10 screenprints date from 1972, the same year that President Nixon travelled to China to meet Chairman Mao Zedong in a bid to re-establish diplomatic relations between the two nations. The meeting was widely publicised by the media, and, combined with the fact that Mao’s image had already been extensively circulated in China as political propaganda, Warhol was instantly captivated. He once wrote, “I have been reading so much about China. They’re so nutty. They don’t believe in creativity. The only picture they ever have is of Mao Zedong. It’s great. It looks like a silkscreen.”
Warhol’s prints of Mao were created with the same silkscreen technique as many of his other iconic works, repeating the Chinese leader’s famous image in different colours, and thus subtly drawing parallels between Chinese communist propaganda and American consumer culture. The series was sold by Sotheby’s in May 2012 for £1.4 million, nearly three times more than its top estimate.
Mao sold by Sotheby’s in 2012
