November Auction Lots

Overvalued
Andy Warhol
"Self-Portrait (Green Camouflage)" (1986)
Sotheby's Contemporary Sale, November 14
Sold for $12,361,000
Est. $9–12 million

When prices on particular paintings capsize previous comparables, you have to ask what’s up. Even with the souped-up Warhol market and numerous paintings vaulting past the $10 million mark, the hammer price for this deadpan late work blew past reality checks.

At least three bidders, including Warhol supertrader Alberto Mugrabi, chased the 80-inch-square painting, which eventually sold to an anonymous telephone bidder.

The last outing for a camouflage self-portrait was in November 1999, when Christie’s New York had a smaller, 40-inch-square canvas that sold for $387,500. Christie’s also sold an 80-inch version depicting the artist in his fright-wig guise, sans camouflage pattern, for $3.2 million two years ago. No matter how you crunch it, this new number makes no market sense.

Courtesy Sotheby's