A group of six self-portraits by Andy Warhol will come up at Sotheby’s sale of contemporary art in New York on May 14. Executed in 1986 – 20 years after the artists last series of self-portraits and just months before his unexpected death – the group represents the definitive self image of Warhol and his brand. They are among the last and greatest works of his career.
The group was acquired by the present owners in July 1986 from the London gallery of legendary dealer Anthony d’Offay. They bought it soft $57,500. Now to be offered as one lot it is estimated at $25-35 million. Warhol had laid out strict instructions as to the height at which they should be hung (so as to correspond exactly with his own head height) and to the sequencing (blue, green, orange, lilac, pale blue, pink). They have hung in that manner for the last 28 years.