Andy Warhol's 'One Dollar Bill' Sells for $32.8 Million USD
“One lady friend asked the right question, ‘Well, what do you love most?’ That’s how I started painting money.”
Legendary pop artist Andy warhol’s iconic One Dollar Bill artwork sold for an astonishing $32.8 million USD on Tuesday, during an auction at Sotheby’s in London. The six-foot-wide work painted by hand in 1962, before Warhol discovered his silk-screen technique, originally belonged to his business manager, Frederick Hughes and was dreamt up after a female friend of the artist instructed him to paint “what he loved most.” A record-breaking night of sales at the British auction house saw works by Francis Bacon, Warhol and Lucien Freud fetch over £130 million GBP, prompting Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art to explain “We reached new heights at Sotheby’s tonight with the highest total we’ve ever achieved for contemporary art in London. Bidders from across the globe were drawn to Warhol works that ripped up the rule book for 20th-century art; rediscovered Francis Bacon gems; and some of the greatest works by British artists of the last 70 years. Tonight’s achievements affirm the pivotal position of London within the international art market.”
