[Daniel Silk]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8179627.stm

Warhol's Jackson goes to auction

The portrait was commissioned to celebrate Thriller's record sales
A portrait by Andy Warhol of the late singer Michael Jackson is set to be auctioned in New York.
The 1984 portrait will be on show ahead of the sale at London's British Music Experience, inside the O2 Arena, where Jackson had been due to perform.
"This Andy Warhol portrait brings together the uncontested King of Pop Art with the uncontested King of Pop," said Janet Lehr, acting for the seller.
Warhol's painting of actress Liz Taylor, fetched $23.7m (£14m) in 2007.
In the same year, the 1963 painting Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) - depicting an overturned car on fire - sold for $71.7m (£42.8m), a record for a Warhol piece.
"The portrait was painted at the height of their careers and is a celebration of two of the great talents in global cultural history," said Ms Lehr, of the Jackson artwork.
American artist Warhol was a leading figure in the Pop Art movement, and he experimented by creating artworks from mass-produced images from American popular culture.
He died in 1987, following a gall bladder operation.

[lee3]

There are a number of these and they've always done average at auction. A similar one on blue was bought in last july with a low estimate of 250k GBP. This painting is returning to the auction block VERY quickly. It was just purchased a mere 2 months ago:

Andy Warhol
Title Michael Jackson
Description synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen inks on canvasExecuted in 1984, this work More ...
Medium synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen inks on canvas
Year of Work 1984
Size Height 30 in.; Width 26 in. / Height 76.2 cm.; Width 66 cm.
Misc. Stamped
Sale of Sotheby's New York: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 [Lot 00225]
Contemporary Art Day Sale
Estimate 250,000 - 350,000 US$
Sold For 278,500 US$ PREMIUM Currency Converter

It will be interesting to see what it sells for. While the Liz and Green Car crash have notable price tags, they have little in common (other than artist) with this painting. I suspect this seller believes they are going to realize a windfall and my guess is they might see a $100k profit which isn't bad for a few month's work. There is just a flood of michael jackson compositions on the art market at the moment which should come as no surprise.

[EHC]

what a cool piece. King of Pop Art does King of Pop Music. I think people's love for MJ and his music has been reignited following his unfortunate death, I know mine has. I'm guessing this hammer at around $700K