Andy Warhol works fetch $17m at New York auction

More than 350 works by Andy Warhol have fetched more than $17m (£10.7m) at auction in New York.

The auction featured photographs and prints, including Endangered Species: San Francisco Silverspot, which made more than $1.2m (£750,000).

Some of the works have never been seen by the public.

Jackie, a screen print and paper collage of Jacqueline Kennedy sold for just over $626,000 (£394,000), more than double the estimate.

It was expected to fetch $300,000 (£188,772).

The auction house, Christie's, said the sale saw big demand for the photographs and prints with many exceeding their high estimates, including Self-Portrait in Fright Wig, estimated to fetch between $12,000 (£7,500) and $18,000 (£11,340), but eventually selling for $50,000 (£31,497).

The auction was the first in a series of live and online auctions to raise money for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York.

The Foundation said the sales would allow it to expand support of the visual arts, fulfilling Warhol's purpose in establishing it.

The organisation's president, Joel Wachs, said: "The new level of global access to Andy Warhol's work that this series of sales makes possible, along with the bolstering of our philanthropic base, makes this an important moment for the Foundation and indeed for the world of art."

The results of the first auction were also welcomed by the foundation's chairman of the board, Michael Straus.

"It has allowed us to increase our grant-making capacity at a time when the arts community needs support and has engaged an ever-expanding audience with the art of Andy Warhol," he said.

Source: BBC

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