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Andy Warhol’s “selfie” sold for over $30 million

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Culture & Entertainment

Andy Warhol’s “selfie” sold for over $30 million

Today, we're turning things over to our intern, Erica Rae Chong: Andy-Warhol-Self-portraits Millions of selfies are posted online each day but not many can be said to be worth over $30 million. A series of Andy Warhol self portraits went under the hammer at Sotheby's contemporary art auction on Wednesday for that exorbitant sum, making it possibly the world's most expensive "selfie". (Take that, Ellen Degeneres!) Warhol's image was silkscreened onto six canvases in a variety of bright colours, true to the pop art style he is known and revered for. Each one measures 22 inches by 22 inches in size. The selfie-esque portraits were created in 1986 and unveiled that same year at the London Anthony d'Offay gallery, nearly three decades before “selfie” was crowned word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. "I realised two things: first that Warhol was without question the greatest portrait painter of the 20th century, and secondly that it was many years since he had made an iconic self-portrait," recalled d'Offay in the series catalog. "A week later I visited Warhol in New York and suggested to him an exhibition of new self-portraits. A month later he had a series of images to show me in all of which he was wearing the now famous 'fright wig.'" These self-portraits were part of Warhol’s last works of art before his he died of surgical complications on Feb. 22, 1987. Sotheby's did not reveal the identity of the art collector but I’m inclined to think someone who would splurge $30 million on this self-portrait series may be as eccentric as Warhol was himself. It makes one wonder what other art pieces hang on the walls of the buyer's whitewashed loft (because we all know art collectors likely live in lofts). What's next? Perhaps perfectly composed holiday photos by flytographers or simply the next bizarre art trend, but I doubt any can outdo these final pieces by Warhol. Selfies are becoming increasingly ubiquitous but do wedding selfies take things too far? Image courtesy of Sotheby's

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Andy Warhol’s “selfie” sold for over $30 million

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