Warhol’s iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe breaks American auction record

An iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe by artist Andy Warhol has sold for more than $195 million, setting a new American auction record, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Warhol’s pop-art work “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,” which features the actress on a bright turquoise background, closed at $195,040,000 at Christie’s on Monday.

The piece, signed and dated “Andy Warhol / 64,” was expected to fetch a price of more than $200 million. Had it sold for that amount, it would have become the highest-selling piece of 20th-century artwork at an auction, according to The New York Times.

While falling short of the estimated sale price, the piece still made American auction history.

It also shattered a previous Warhol record — prior to Monday, the auction record for one of his pieces was set in 2013 when “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” sold for $104.5 million, noted the Times.

Warhol’s Monroe portrait came to Christie’s from the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation in Zurich. All proceeds of the sale will go to the Swiss charitable foundation, which invests in health care initiatives to help underprivileged children and young adults worldwide.

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