Two Andy Warhol portraits of superstars Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando have sold for more than 151 million dollars (£96 million) at an auction in New York.
Triple Elvis (Ferus Type) sold for 81.9 million dollars (£52 million) and Four Marlons brought in 69.6 million dollars (£44.1 million) at Christie's sale of post-war and contemporary art.
The near 7ft-high pieces were acquired by German casino company WestSpiel in the 1970s.
Clamdigger, a life-size sculpture created in 1972 by Willem de Kooning, sold for 29.2 million dollars (£18.5 million), a world auction record for a sculpture by the artist. The bronze piece stood in the entry of the artist's Long Island studio for about four decades.
Also getting attention was an oversized sculpture of a monkey by the artist Jeff Koons, which sold for 25.9 million dollars (£16.4 million).
The sale realised 852.9 million dollars (£540 million), thought to be the highest total for any art auction.
Warhol's Elvis portrait, created in ink and silver paint in 1963, depicts the rock 'n' roll heart-throb as a cowboy, armed and shooting from the hip. The Brando silkscreen, created three years later, shows the actor on a motorcycle in a black leather jacket, an image that is repeated four times.
Warhol produced a series of 22 images of Elvis. His Double Elvis (Ferus Type) sold for 37 million dollars at Sotheby's in 2012.
Last autumn, his Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) set an auction record for his work when it sold at Sotheby's for 105.4 million dollars.
There is only one other four-times Brando, in the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen. A Double Marlon sold at Christie's for 32.5 million dollars in 2008.
The inspiration for de Kooning's Clamdigger came from the clam diggers the abstract expressionist artist observed on the beach every day.
It was offered for sale by the daughters of Lisa de Kooning, who inherited the sculpture from her father when he died in 1997. She died in 2012.
The auction record for any work by de Kooning is 32.1 million dollars for Untitled VIII, set last year at Christie's.
Cy Twombly's Untitled, one of the famous series of Blackboard paintings he made between 1966 and 1971, brought in 69.6 million dollars (£44.1 million), a world auction record for his work. With their spiralling lines on a dark grey background, the paintings were so named because they resembled the slate of classroom blackboard.
Koons's stainless steel Balloon Monkey (Orange) is nearly 12ft high and 20ft long, and it looks like an inflated twisted balloon.
Koons became the most expensive living artist last year when his Balloon Dog (Orange) was auctioned for 58.4 million dollars.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article