What Warhol’s Marilyn tells us about the art market

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last month, Andy Warhol's "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" sold for $195mn, making it the second most expensive piece of art to sell at auction, ever. And as prices keep going up, the art market — auction houses, gallerists, dealers, collectors — want to keep it that way. On the heels of a ‘stonking’ art season, we invite two heavy hitters into the studio to walk us through it: arts editor Jan Dalley and art market columnist Melanie Gerlis. Then, Christie's head of 20th- and 21st-century art, Alex Rotter, pulls back the curtain on these record-breaking sales.

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Want to say hi? We love hearing from you. Email us at [email protected]. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.

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Links and mentions from the episode:

– Melanie’s article ‘Art Basel’s Swiss fair defies gloomy economy with soaring sales’: https://on.ft.com/3QtSagn

– Melanie’s auction season roundup: https://on.ft.com/38jn363

– Columnist John Gapper on how ‘The art market cannot get enough Andy Warhol Marilyns’: https://on.ft.com/3O3GeAm

– Jan’s most recent art column, on whether we should send art back to Russia: https://on.ft.com/3OeLzF2

– Robert Armstrong’s profile of Larry Gagosian: https://on.ft.com/3IfT0sD

– Melanie’s books are called The Art Fair Story and Art as an Investment?

– Melanie is on Twitter @mgerlis, and Alex is on Instagram @rottweilernyc.

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Special offers for Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial are here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast.

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A month ago, Christie's auction house sold Andy Warhol's painting Shot Sage Blue Maryland
0:05.3	for a record-breaking $170 million.
0:09.7	That's $195 million with fees.
0:12.7	Good evening, everyone.
0:14.1	Welcome to Christie's for the sale of Thomas and Doris Amman's great collection.
0:19.0	The painting became the most expensive piece of 20th century art
0:22.4	and American art ever to be sold at auction.
0:26.4	I was there that night at the back of the room,
0:28.9	and over the course of two hours,
0:30.5	I watched this collection of artworks sell for hundreds of millions of dollars.
0:35.4	The room was lit up in bright lights
0:37.6	and professionally live streamed
0:39.4	for millions of people watching at home.
0:41.6	It was kind of like being in the studio audience
0:43.8	at Saturday Night Live.
0:46.8	And it was pure theater.
0:49.7	Thank you for the underbids there, sir.
0:51.3	And we moved to the Clemente.
0:52.9	One painting by Francesco Clemente started at $70,000. 70, 80, 90, I have 100. And a bidding more took it to a million and a half. One five in the cell room at one million five. Still not yours, Elaine. Are you out? Here it is, then. You have it here. Third row at one million five. You sir. One million five. Congratulations. Halfway through,
1:12.9	this veteran art reporter sitting next to me turned to me and he says, so how do you like watching
1:17.6	rich people spend a lot of money? And all I could say was, it's a lot of money. Honestly, it was
1:23.9	disorienting. To see so much money move so fast.
	...

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