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Andy Warhol's Portrait of Marilyn Monroe On Sale At Christie's

Warhol's Lemon Marilyn At Christie's NY Auction in May 2007

The inspired collector paid for Andy Warhol's portrait of Monroe $250, back in 1962. The painting will be auctioned at Christie's in May, with an estimated final price of around $15mln.

After last year's staggering $16mln tag for "Orange Marilyn," the "Lemon Marilyn" Warhol portrait is expected to sell for at least $15 million.

The unknown collector selling the Marilyn's portrait bought Andy Warhol's work from Eleanor Ward's Stable Gallery in New York.

Those interested can examine Warhol's art at Christie's in London (Monday-Wednesday), before it goes to NY for auction.

The painting was done after a photograph from Marilyn Monroe's "Niagara."

During the 1960s, Warhol transformed himself from an advertising illustrator into one of the most famous American artists of the day. In many ways, Andy Warhol and his circle helped define the decade.

During the 1960s Warhol began to make paintings of famous American products such as Campbell's Soup Cans from the Campbell Soup Company and Coca-Cola, as well as paintings of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Troy Donahue, and Elizabeth Taylor. He founded "The Factory", his studio, during these years, and gathered around himself a wide range of artists, writers, musicians and underground celebrities.

He switched to silkscreen prints, which he produced serially, seeking not only to make art of mass-produced items but to mass produce the art itself. In declaring that he wanted to be "a machine", and in minimizing the role of his own creative insight in the production of his work, Warhol sparked a revolution in art - his work quickly became very controversial, and popular.