When it comes to art auctions, money talks – but at
Sotheby’s latest sale, which opened for preview on 8 June, it’s dollars that are the focus of the show.
A private collection of 21 works of art inspired by the US dollar was unveiled for the first time ahead of auctions in London on July 1 and 2.
The lot revolves largely around the work of legendary US pop artist Andy Warhol, whose fixation with money is well documented.
Says Sotheby’s James Sevier, “...money is one of the prevailing themes of Warhol’s work, and the relationship between art and commerce has become ever more important in today’s art market, but what’s interesting about this collection is you have behind me the only hand-painted dollar painting. It was the very first dollar painting he did, and then he moved on from the hand-painted to the silk screens, of which we are very lucky to have two in the collection.”
Each piece comes from the collection of one European owner, who is thought to have worked in financi