Andy Warhol’s Elvis Presley painting could sell for $50 million

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Andy Warhol would have another headline for his scrapbook. The prince of pop art’s portrait of Elvis Presley is set for the Sotheby’s auction block and is expected to fetch $30 million to $50 million.

‘Double Elvis (Ferus Type),’ which shows the King as a cowboy shooting from the hip, will be offered in New York on May 9 as part of a larger Sotheby’s auction of postwar and contemporary art.

The life-size painting from 1963 was exhibited at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles the same year and will show in L.A., Hong Kong and London before the spring sale.

‘Eight Elvises,’ also a 1963 silkscreen painting, sold to a private collector in 2009 for $100 million (that’s $12.5 million per Elvis), making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold.

Throughout his life, Warhol was obsessed with tabloids and celebrities, collecting newspaper articles of his favorite Hollywood stars as a teenager; later keeping clippings of himself in a series of 34 scrapbooks.

‘Warhol: Headlines,” an exhibit of Warhol’s tabloids turned fine art, is making the gallery rounds in Frankfurt, Germany, and Rome and will wrap its tour in the Andy Warhol Museum in his hometown of Pittsburgh in October.

RELATED:

Edvard Munch’s ‘Scream’ headed for auction at Sotheby’s

Van Gogh painting owned by Elizabeth Taylor sells at auction

Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter works bring in millions at auction

-- Jamie Wetherbe

; Los Angeles Times, right