A Campbells soup can painting by Andy Warhol, one of the iconic works of Pop Art history, went on show in London today.
The painting and another quintessentially American work — Roy Lichtenstein’s Cup of Coffee — feature in Christie’s sale of post-war and contemporary art on Tuesday.
Warhol’s soup can paintings were first conceived in 1962 and are regarded as a landmark in post-war culture. This one, expected to make up to £3.25 million, was previously in the collection of New York dealer Ileana Sonnabend.
Christie’s expert Francis Outred said the fact the Warhol and the Lichtenstein were being sold in London was testament to the importance of the capital in selling to the growing band of international collectors in new markets such as Asia and the Middle East. He said: “It is quite unusual to get a really important piece of American Pop Art in London. Usually we put Pop Art in New York. But people from all over the world have come to live here and it’s changed the complexion of London as a sales centre.”
Yet the hottest works on sale are an untitled work by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a masterpiece by the 54-year-old British artist Peter Doig, Jetty (1994).
The work by Basquiat, the one-time graffiti artist who died aged 27 in 1988, is part of a group of important double portraits. One sold for $48.8 million in New York in May and this is expected to make at least £15 million.
The Doig has an estimate of up to £6 million — only seven years after he first breached the £1 million mark at auction. Mr Outred said Doig was now the most eagerly sought of all British artists of his generation and this was “probably his greatest work”.
“People who collect Picasso and Monet are now adding Doig’s work to their collections,” he said.
