Andy Warhol's painting of Elizabeth Taylor has sold for over $662,000 (£427,233) at auction in New York, along with jewellery, clothing and other memorabilia that belonged to actress, who died in March 2011, reports the BBC.
Warhol predicted that “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Liz Taylor was so famous that yesterday, her positions were in the global spotlight, with the 1963 lithography the top lot.
The painting was signed ‘To Elizabeth with much love’ in felt-tip pen by Warhol, who died in 1987. It was one of 12 portraits he created of Taylor in the early 1960s when she was recovering from a serious illness – one of which sold in 2007 for $23.7m (£11.4m at the time).
Among the other headline-catching sales were the Cleopatra star’s wedding dress worn at her second marriage to Richard Burton for over $62,000 (£40,012) and a pearl necklace that was bought for $11.8m (£7.6m). The ‘Crown Jewels of Hollywood’ collection hadn’t even finished before it had broke the world record for the most valuable private collection of jewels sold at auction.
Warhol’s pictures of Taylor were part of a wider project he embarked on in the 60s to capture icons of America, including products such as Campbell’s Soup and Coca-Cola bottles as well as famous face like Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley.
A portion of profits generated by admissions, events and select publications related to the sales will be donated to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.