Christie’s has secured Andy Warhol’s Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), 1963, as the highlight of its sale of contemporary art in New York on 16 May. The work is estimated at $25m-$35m which, if realised, will beat the previous record for Warhol set last November when Christie’s sold a 1972 Mao to a Chinese entrepreneur for $17.4m. Green Car Crash shows the immediate aftermath of a horrific accident, with the overturned car in flames and the body of the driver hanging, limp but still alive, impaled on a post. An unconcerned pedestrian is shown strolling by.
The work is one of the “Death and Disaster” series which rarely come on the market. While the auction record for Warhol stands at $17.4m, private transactions have been higher, and it is understood that another work in this series has changed hands for $30m, which would explain Christie’s high estimate.
With the market’s seemingly bottomless appetite for Warhol, all the major sales now include his work, of which there is a rich supply, and high prices are bringing more onto the market. Other Warhols in Christie’s sale are a Yellow Marilyn, 1962, (estimate on request), a Four-Foot Flowers, 1964, (est $5m-$7m) and Self-Portrait, 1966-67 (est $5.5m-$7.5m). The group is expected to make over $67m.
