Picture this: Warhol car crash painting brings $71 million
by Jonathon Ramsey on May 18th 2007 at 11:58AM 
Warhol said "Art is what you can get away with," and the late, great artist's paintings are still getting away with a fortune. Among the most recent works auctioned by Christie's is his painting Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), from Warhol's Death and Disaster series, which went for $71.7 million dollars on Wednesday, May 16. The painting is based on a photograph that appeared in Newsweek magazine from June 3rd, 1963. The photograph depicted the end of a car chase, when a 24-year-old commercial fisherman in Seattle flipped his car, hit a telephone pole, and was ejected from the car forcefully enough to be impaled on, but not immediately killed by, a climbing spike. The mangled car burns in an otherwise mundane residential setting -- there's even a guy crossing the street like it's nothing special. Seventy-one million for a green-tinted painting of a random photograph, however... that doesn't happen every day.
Thanks to Stuntman Mike!
[Source: BBC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
FLR 12:05PM (5/18/2007)
Yikes, check out the dude hanging midway up the pole on the left. He fought the law and the....law won!
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Greg 12:15PM (5/18/2007)
Overpriced....
I wouldn't have paid a penny more than 60 million !
LOL
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Greg 12:15PM (5/18/2007)
Overpriced....
I wouldn't have paid a penny more than 60 million !
LOL
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worthless whoreall 12:17PM (5/18/2007)
just goes to show you that the art crowd loves to waste their money on crappy artwork.
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mustangcharlie 1:48PM (5/18/2007)
Anybody got a link to a high res copy of the original newspaper photo?
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JC3 5:10PM (5/18/2007)
Gives one an insight to the emotional turmoil and alienation inside Wharhol as He contrasts the crash to what seems like ordinary life in the background.Too bad he was too personally invested in his artistic success and His own life an artistic expression to seek therapy.
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Don 5:59PM (5/18/2007)
Warhol is SO overrated.
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