Andy Warhol’s star portraits sell for $151m

Two Andy Warhol portraits of superstars Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando have sold for more than $151m (€121.2m) at an auction in New York.

Triple Elvis (Ferus Type) sold for $81.9m (€65.75m) and Four Marlons brought in $69.6m (€55.87m) at Christie’s sale of post-war and contemporary art. The 7ft-high pieces were acquired by German casino firm WestSpiel in the 1970s.

Clamdigger, a life-size sculpture created in 1972 by Willem de Kooning, sold for $29.2m (€23.4m), a world auction record for a sculpture by the artist. The bronze piece stood in the entry of the artist’s Long Island studio for about four decades.