Andy Warhol's "Four Marilyns" fetches $38 million

PanARMENIAN.Net - With the art market crackling, it's fitting that auction house Phillips rounded out New York's strong set of major spring auctions Thursday, May 16 with a Pop—Andy Warhol's 1962 silk-screen grid of grinning Marilyn Monroes, which sold for $38.2 million, The Wall Street Journal said.

Phillips had earlier expected to get about $30 million for "Four Marilyns," one of a series of Warhol depictions of the actress. But after two weeks of record sales at larger rivals Sotheby's BID +0.47% and Christie's International—including Christie's record $495 million sale Wednesday—Phillips raised the asking price for the 29-inch work with an orange background to $35 million. A woman bidding in Phillips's Park Avenue saleroom clearly decided it was worth even more.

Inflation has been the art market's overriding dynamic all season, driven mainly by U.S. and European collectors confident values will keep rising, dealers say. As a result, bidders in the latest round paid out record sums for nearly everything on offer—including a $58.4 million Jackson Pollock "drip" painting at Christie's and a $41.6 million Paul Cézanne still life at Sotheby's.

The art market's next major test comes with London's summer auctions in late June.