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RELEASE: WARHOL FOUNDATION SEALS LONG-TERM DEAL WITH CHRISTIE’S

拍卖收益将用于拓展基金会的核心资助项目

Single Artist Live Auctions, Private Sales and Pioneering Online Auctions
Will Give Collectors Worldwide the Opportunity to Purchase
Original Works from the Warhol Foundation’s Collection
“Everybody must have a fantasy.” – Andy Warhol

NEW YORK, NY (SEPTEMBER 5, 2012) — The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Christie’s jointly announced today that the Foundation has engaged Christie’s for future sales of Andy Warhol’s work from its collection.  Recognizing that the arts community needs its support now more than ever, the Foundation seeks to significantly increase its endowment in order to ensure and expand its long-term support of the visual arts. Towards this goal, Christie’s will conduct phased sales over a period of years using multiple platforms, including single artist live auctions, private sales and continuing online auctions, bringing a wide range of Warhol’s art – much of which has never before been seen by the public at large – to existing as well as new collectors worldwide.  At the same time, the Foundation also plans to mark its 25th Anniversary by making additional gifts of significant works to museums, continuing its long history of donating Warhol’s art.

Paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, and printed graphic material by Andy Warhol will be offered first at a series of single-artist live auctions on November 12, 2012.  Online auctions will begin in February 2013, with private sales conducted on an ongoing basis. Sales will thus be phased over a multi-year period in wide distribution.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was created at the late artist’s direction for the purpose of advancing the visual arts.  Since its founding in 1987, the Foundation has pursued that mission by making nearly $250 million in grants to hundreds of museums and non-profit arts organizations nationwide; through grants made to individual artists and arts writers through its “sister foundation” Creative Capital; and through the Andy Warhol Museum, which it founded and endowed with a permanent collection of nearly 4,000 iconic artworks as well as with archival materials.

Michael Straus, Chairman of the Board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, stated, “For a quarter of a century, the Foundation has carefully honored and preserved the artistic legacy of Andy Warhol by pursuing the mission laid out by him – to advance the visual arts.  It has done so principally through grants funded by sales of artworks left to the Foundation in Warhol’s will, as well as through gifts of such works to museums.  We have now chosen to mark the Foundation’s 25th anniversary year by expanding the scope of our art sales in order to increase our future grant-making capacity.  Christie’s enthusiasm for this endeavor, its deep experience with Warhol’s work, and its spirit of innovation all combine to make it the ideal partner for this venture.”

Steven Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of Christie’s, stated, “It is a great honor for Christie’s to be chosen by the Warhol Foundation for this singular initiative. We believe the multifaceted program we have developed for this collaboration will make these sales a model of creating awareness and access in this new day in the art market.  By engaging with collectors across the three mediums of auction, private sale and online, this program will bring the work of Andy Warhol both to those who already acquire masterpieces and to new audiences anywhere and everywhere in the world who never before imagined they could own a Warhol.”

Joel Wachs, President of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, added, “These sales will provide unprecedented global access to Andy Warhol’s work, in keeping with the artist’s own democratizing philosophy and working methods.  The gifts we will make to museums along with the enhanced grant-making made possible by the art sales, when taken together, will underscore Warhol’s legacy and impact on the art world and will provide an even more secure basis to expand that philanthropy in the future.”

About The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was established in 1987.  In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, its mission is the advancement of the visual arts.

The primary focus of the Foundation’s grant-making activity has been to support the creation, presentation and documentation of contemporary visual arts, particularly work that is experimental, under-recognized or challenging in nature. The program has been both pro-active in its approach to the field of cultural philanthropy and responsive to the changing needs of artists. A strong commitment to freedom of artistic expression continues to inform the Foundation’s support of organizations that fight censorship, protect artists’ rights and defend their access to evolving technologies in the digital age.

Through cooperative exhibitions, loans and permanent placement of work in museums nationwide, the Foundation has ensured that the many facets of Warhol’s complex oeuvre are both widely accessible and properly cared for. In helping to establish the comprehensive collection and study center of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Foundation paved the way for new Warhol scholarship and curatorial innovation. The Foundation’s sustained support and oversight of thoroughly researched, extensively illustrated catalogues raisonnés of Warhol’s entire artistic output continues to expand the possibilities for scholarship about his work.

The Foundation has also used its ownership of the copyrights to Warhol images and trademarks to his name and signature as an opportunity to craft creative and responsible licensing policies that are both friendly to scholars and artists wishing to use Warhol images for educational and creative purposes and profitable to the Foundation when the images are used for commercial purposes. Revenues from licensing agreements add significantly to those earned through the continued sale of work from the Foundation’s art collection, enabling the Foundation to build the endowment from which it makes cash grants to arts organizations around the country. Visit the Foundation’s website at www.warholfoundation.org.

All Andy Warhol Artworks © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

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