36 | COLLECTING ART
so we estimated $30-40 million just to make sure we don’t overprice this picture in the public realm.
CF: I don’t know what the Gershes would have paid for Sleeping Girl in 1964 (is that recorded?) but presumably today’s high prices reflect the growing stature or significance of Lichtenstein’s work over the last 50 years. Has it reached its peak? Or might this continue upwards, given the major Lichtenstein retrospectives in Chicago this year and at the London’s Tate Modern next year?
TM: Yes, it’s recorded—in 1964 the Gershes paid $1,600 for this painting. And, yes, the upcoming retrospectives this year will help create additional interest in the sale of this painting. However, Lichtenstein’s paintings have always been hard to get, even at the time Lichtenstein was painting them. Leo Gersh was actually there at the time Irving Blum uncrated the painting for the New York exhibition and said to Blum, “That’s my painting!” So Blum responded, “OK, I guess I have to sell it to you.” The growing of the prices for Lichtenstein’s paintings is very much like that of the other artists in that stable. It’s just the same for Warhol, for Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and so on. There’s a whole
TPC LIFE & LEISURE
Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, is making auction history.
group of post-war artists who are expensive, so Lichtenstein’s prices will not necessarily develop in isolation but together with all other masterpieces of 20th-century art that come to market. A great Picasso is now worth, say, $150 million—in 20 years all these masterpieces of the 20th century will be similar in price points. So there is more room for Lichtenstein’s price development. And there will be less and less of them for sale. He’s as important as all the other 20th-century giants.
“A great Picasso is now
worth $150 million—in 20 years all these
I concluded by asking Meyer, famed for his deft raising of the level of excitement, as well as the bidding, if he felt great pressure when auctioning such a significant work of art: “I like it! Stress is a good thing for me. The sale has been one of our great highlights of the year. It’s always lots of fun!”
masterpieces of the 20th century will be similar in price points.”
If you’ve been caught up by Meyer’s infectious passion for this painting, and even if you don’t have $44 million to spend on a Lichtenstein just now, there’s a unique opportunity for the general public to see his works at Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, on show at the Art Institute of Chicago from May 16 until September 3, and then the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from October 14–January 13, 2013.
www.tpc.com
© COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’S
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