Warhol sale nets Grant €16m

“ONE million dollars is the new 10 grand,” according to one Manhattan art dealer who was awed by prices paid at a major art auction in New York.

Before the sale there had been fears that the art market might finally begin to crack, but a packed salesroom of enthusiastic bidders at Christie’s proved otherwise.

Andrew Fabricant, the Manhattan dealer who decided a million bucks is the new 10 grand, said as he left the salesroom: “This was supernatural.”

Actor Hugh Grant made more than £9m (€12.6m) when he sold an Andy Warhol portrait of Elizabeth Taylor at Christie’s auction of post-war and contemporary art at New York’s Rockefeller Centre last night.

The 1962 portrait fetched $23,561,000 (€16m) — five times the price Grant paid for it in 2001.

The auction also set a world record for British artist Lucian Freud, beating the previous record of £7.86m for Bruce Bernard set at Christie’s in London in June.

Freud’s Ib and her Husband sold for $19.36m.

A spokeswoman for Christie’s said Warhol’s Liz was part of the series of portraits the artist created in the 1960s when his near-obsession with three legendary muses in his life — Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy — drove him to create “some of the most iconic portraits of the 20th century”.

Talking about the Liz portraits, Warhol has said: “I started those a long time ago when she was so sick and everybody said she was going to die.

“Now I am doing them all over, putting bright colours on her lips and eyes.”

Also in the auction audience were actress Sarah Jessica Parker and fashion designer Marc Jacobs.

Sixteen records were set at the auction as about 1,000 people packed into the room to watch the sale.

Jeff Koons’ Blue Diamond was sold to the Gagosian Gallery for $11.8m. Christie’s described the work as “dazzling, magnificent, gigantically grotesque and staggeringly beautiful”.

A Christie’s spokesman said the sale, which fetched a total of $325m (€222m), was the second highest contemporary art sale in the world.