A print by American artist Andy Warhol sold for $853,000 in a heated bidding match at the Heffel auction house in Toronto, sets a new auction record.
One of the four silkscreen prints of the late monarch that Warhol included in his 1985 Reigning Queens series was created from an official 1977 photograph commemorating her silver jubilee.
The expensive Royal Edition artwork had a low estimate of $373,000 and is covered in diamond dust. According to The Art Newspaper, the lot’s bidding started at $400,000 and quickly heated up after a brief lull in offers.
In addition to Queen Elizabeth II, the other three female monarchs in power at the time that Warhol created his Reigning Queens series were Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Ntfombi Twala of Swaziland, and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
According to a description of the prints in the King Collection, Warhol reduced the official portrait of the royal, which had been taken by photographer Peter Grugeon, to only “a mask-like visage.” The description reads, “All character has been eliminated, and we are met by a sign of royal authority.”
Warhol shows his interest in mass production and serves as a reminder that Queen Elizabeth II is the most frequently portrayed woman in the world by replicating the same image four times.