NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s iannounced details about Andy Warhol @ Christie’s, the first online-only sale in its long-term partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. For one week, from Tuesday, February 26 through Tuesday, March 5, collectors around the world will have the opportunity to log in and bid online for 125 paintings, drawings, photographs and prints by Pop Art’s reigning superstar, Andy Warhol.

The first of the online-only Warhol sales will feature works representing a wide array of media spanning the artist’s career. Estimates range from $600 to $70,000, offering both seasoned collectors and first-time buyers extraordinary global access to Warhol’s work. The timed online format allows clients to browse, bid, receive instant updates by email or phone if another bid exceeds theirs, organize shipping, and pay from anywhere in the world.

Over the course of 2013, and throughout the ongoing partnership, Christie’s will launch additional online-only sales of original works of art by Warhol from the Foundation’s collection, marking the first time the auction house has ever offered online-only sales of Post War and Contemporary art. The week-long cybersale kicks off the second phase of Christie’s partnership with the Foundation, a multi-year initiative built on an innovative, three-tiered program of live auctions, online-only auctions and private sales. The inaugural Andy Warhol at Christie’s live auctions in New York on November 12, 2012 realized $17 million. Proceeds from these and all subsequent sales under the partnership benefit the Warhol Foundation’s grant making programs which support artists and non-profit arts organizations.

Michael Straus, Chairman of the Board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, stated, “This long-term, multi-platform series of sales will provide important endowment strength for our programs in support of contemporary arts organizations and artists. Just as important, though, the initiative will bring Andy Warhol’s art to the widest possible audience, preserving and extending his legacy.”

Joel Wachs, President of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, added, “At the same time as it broadens the base for the Foundation’s grantmaking, this online-only sale will greatly expand access to Andy Warhol’s work, in a fundamentally democratic manner that is entirely consistent with his art. We are confident that this sale will honor his artistry and further his philanthropic mission.”

Sale Highlights
“The idea is not to live forever, it is to create something that will.” - Andy Warhol

Among the highlights of the first sale is a trial proof for the lithograph, I Love Your Kiss Forever Forever (1964), based on an image of Marilyn Monroe’s lips, presumed to be unique in this composition and color combination, with an estimate of $3,000 - 5,000. From Warhol’s iconic soup-can oeuvre comes Campbell’s Chicken with Rice Soup (1964), created with a tin soup can filled with concrete, from an unrealized edition of thirteen, with an estimate of $50,000 -70,000.

The screenprint New Coke (circa 1985, one of a small number of impressions) is a semi-abstract image of an overturned Coke can and its spreading puddle, screenprinted on two sheets of colored graphic art paper, with an estimate of $25,000 – 35,000. Also offered are a unique Polaroid print of the soda can (Coke, estimate $5,000-7,000) and a Coca-Cola spill on paper (Coke Spill, estimate $6,000 – 8,000) that Warhol used as inspiration in the process of creating New Coke.

Also among the highlights is a T-shirt with the silkscreened image of Warhol’s famous Self-Portrait with Fright Wig, executed circa 1986. The estimate, $15,000 – 20,000, is a small fraction of the cost of the same self-portrait realized on canvas.

Amy Cappellazzo, Chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Development at Christie’s, stated, “The Andy Warhol @ Christie’s online sales are the perfect channel of distribution – both conceptually and commercially – for Warhol’s works of art. His love of popular culture and accessibility prefigure him as an internet pioneer – even before it was dreamt of. Our online sales bring Warhol’s works into new communities and into the hands of collectors everywhere who know the value and artistic import of his work.”

Andy Warhol is widely recognized as one of the defining figures of 20th century art and culture, as well as a philanthropist of extraordinary generosity. As an artist, he unabashedly embraced the populist and the commercial. As a philanthropist, he ensured that his giving would extend past his death by establishing The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which received almost the entirety of his estate.