Andy Warhol’s ‘Double Elvis’ brings in $37 million at auction

A version of Andy Warhol’s “Double Elvis” that has ties to Los Angeles brought in $37 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday in New York. The silkscreen work, which depicts Presley in a cowboy pose, was offered for sale by an unidentified American collector, who acquired it in 1977, according to reports.

The work is one of 22 images that Warhol created of the rock singer. Several of the “Elvis” silkscreens reside in museums, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and “Triple Elvis” is part of the Fisher collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The selling price was on the lower end of Sotheby’s estimate of $30 million to $50 million.

The auction house said it was the first “Double Elvis” to appear on the market since 1995. The version has a special connection to Los Angeles because it was displayed at the Ferus Gallery in 1963, the year it was created. The full title of the piece is “Double Elvis (Ferus Type).”

QUIZ| Expensive art: Can you guess the price tag?

The Ferus Gallery was a small exhibition space in L.A. that played a crucial role in developing the careers of a number of contemporary artists.

Sotheby’s didn’t identify the buyer of the work. Wednesday’s auction also featured Francis Bacon’s “Figure Writing Reflected in Mirror” and Roy Lichtenstein’s “Sleeping Girl,” both of which sold for approximately $45 million.

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