It will take more than a little pocket change to buy the Coke that’s going on sale Tuesday in New York City.
Unless you have the pants of a giant.
Christie’s is auctioning a life-size, 1962 Andy Warhol painting of the beverage brand’s iconic contour bottle for between $40 million and $60 million. If the auctioneer gets its asking price, it will be the most ever paid for a Coca-Cola-inspired item, Coca-Cola archivist Ted Ryan said.
“This would top the $34.5 million paid three years ago for another of Warhol’s Coke pieces,” Ryan said, referring to a painting of a Coca-Cola soda bottle bought by hedge-fund manager Steven Cohen.
But don’t look for the Atlanta-based company to dig deep to try to snag the 6-foot-tall piece. Ryan, who plans to attend the auction, said he asked his bosses if he could make a bid but was turned down.
The painting, whose official title is “Coca-Cola (3),” was hand-painted instead of silk-screened, which was a favorite method of the renowned artist. The black-and-white piece, one of the most popular of Warhol’s pop works, has been in private hands for years. The owner’s name has not been disclosed.
Coca-Cola owns about 30 pieces of Warhol’s Coke-inspired work, including paintings, sketches and Polaroids. Several of them have been exhibited at the World of Coca-Cola.
Last year, the company acquired Warhol’s take on “New Coke,” a spilled can of the product that Time magazine had commissioned for a cover.
When the public rejected “New Coke” and forced Coca-Cola to abandon the product shortly after its introduction in 1985, Time dropped plans to use the Warhol “New Coke” work.
“It’s an unrealized cover,” Ryan said. “Coke introduced Coke Classic before the cover could be used.”
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