Celeb memorabilia on auction
2006-05-23 10:30
New York - Don't have $10m for an Andy Warhol Campbell's soup can painting? A mere $1 000 could buy the late artist's paintbrush or paint-splattered shoes when an array of his possessions hit the auction block next month.
The items, included in a sale of celebrity memorabilia
announced by Christie's on Monday, were culled from gifts that
Warhol bestowed on Jeffrey Warhola and his other nephews when
they visited their famous uncle from the late 1960s until his
death in 1987.
Pre-sale estimates are as low as $600 for the belongings of
the Pop Art icon, whose subjects included Marilyn Monroe,
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the famed red-and-white soup
can.
Clothes, boots, wigs
The market for Warhols has been especially hot in recent
years, with his art works regularly selling for several million
dollars.
The auction, set for June 22 in New York, features his
clothing, roller skates, cowboy boots, sunglasses and
neckties.
One of the artist's trademark silver wigs is estimated by
the auction house to sell in a range of $4 000 to $6 000. Other
items include paint-splattered shoes and blue jeans.
Also up for sale are Polaroid print portraits that Warhol
took of many of his friends including author Truman Capote,
musician Mick Jagger, actor Sylvester Stallone, entertainer
Liza Minnelli and boxer Muhammad Ali.
The photo of Ali is signed by the champion and the auction house estimates it could go for $6 000 to $9 000.
Other celebrity memorabilia
Prices at memorabilia auctions can skyrocket. Items
belonging to Kennedy Onassis sold for as much as hundreds of
times their estimated pre-sale value, as have those belonging
to Marilyn Monroe.
Additional items at the auction include scores of possessions from actor Clark Gable's estate, including his Rolex watch, a monogrammed cigarette case and a copy of Gone With the Wind inscribed to Gable by the film's producer, David O. Selznick.
Monroe's address book from the early 1960s will also be
auctioned off, along with the screen siren's heavily annotated
script from the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; each
estimated to go for $10 000 to $15 000.
Items associated with Marlon Brando, Marlene Dietrich and
Judy Garland will also be up for sale.