Shot Marilyns

A legend of the silver screen, Marilyn Monroe is widely considered to be the epitome of Hollywood glamour.

"[2] In 1964, Warhol created portraits of Monroe based on a publicity photo for her 1953 film Niagara.

Dorothy Podber, a performance artist and friend of Factory photographer Billy Name, saw the recently completed paintings stacked against one another at the studio and asked Warhol if she could shoot them.

[9] In the midst of an art market recession, he sold it at a loss to Philip Niarchos for $3.6 million in 1994.

[14] This sale greatly extended the record for a price paid at auction for a work by an American artist set by Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982 painting Untitled, which sold for $110.5 million in 2017.

[15] It also set the mark for the most expensive work of 20th century art sold in a public sale.