The Andy Warhol Michael Jackson portrait seems to have caused a lot of ups and downs in the art world, especially after Michael Jackson's death.
Here is a brief timeline highlighting relevant dates on the journey of this Andy Warhol portrait:
May 2009 Sotheby's sold for $278,500
June 25 2009 Michael Jackson dies at age 50
July 12 2009 On the last day and at the very last minute of ArtHamptons, due to the death of Michael Jackson, the Vered Gallery decides to have this piece consigned as part of a silent auction.
However, on July 12 the Vered Gallery decides to remove the portrait from the auction, most likely due to the lack of organization and timing to create a proper auction - the emotional stress of Michael Jackson's death was still very strong worldwide.
August 19 2009 New deadline for a second attempt at creating a silent auction for the Michael Jackson painting. At 8pm, the minimum bid is $800,000. This time, the piece had traveled to Los Angeles and New York for previews alerting interested buyers that this artwork is on offer.
Sadly, the death of Michael Jackson is no longer the most discussed topic worldwide, so some of that fever has died down. The result? The portrait went for an undisclosed amount (first they said it went for "millions" then changes that to over $1 million) by an unidentified buyer. It was estimated to go for up to $10 million. What an anti-climax....
A Bloomberg article mentions "Lehr (the gallery owner) said she expects the man who bought it from the gallery to consign it back to the gallery to resell." How long is this saga going to continue?
It seems to be harder and harder to differentiate what is actually going on - has there actually been popular demand they are just hiding from the public or is this discretion and silence a sign the auction was a failure?
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