Warhol's prices keep climbing. I believe it is an "art bubble" waiting to pop. Is it just co-incidence that the Andy Warhol Foundation has stated that it is flogging off the remaining 20,000 pieces of the artists work it has in stock. Now it wants to "do grants". Those are not little alarm bells tinkling that you hear. It is screaming sirens going off. They want to sell in this terrible economic climate? How many? Dearie me - that wouldn't give me any warm glows of comfort if I had invested in Warhol's factory fodder. Oh, yes… and it will not authenticate Warhol's art any more. Really? Then who will? Actually, truth is, I don't give a monkeys…
Jones points in astute directions: "However, in a powerful investigative article for the New York Review of Books, the art critic Richard Dorment suggests connections between the planned sell-off, the closure of the Warhol authentication board and a series of legal disputes about what is a "real" Warhol work. There is a poison at the heart of Warhol's legacy. It is this: most of his works from around 1970 onwards were made in off-site studios that he never visited. He simply sent templates for the paintings and prints to be made from, and signed the finished works when they were sent to him. Warhol started by parodying factory methods, and went on to rely on them."
I suspect that the art market is awash with fakes of Mr Warhol. In a booming art market, some collectors put on their "money blinkers" and sign the cheques. Some collectors have had their work "denied" as genuine and lawsuits are flying around. Warhol, I suspect, would have just giggled.
Jones sums it up: 'Warhol's prices today are phenomenal. But how authentic are those "masterpieces" that sell for millions? Is there even such a thing as a genuine Andy Warhol? What you see is what you get, said Warhol. He was joking, as usual".
