Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Warhol's Michael Jackson portrait sells for $812K

NEW YORK -- A "Thriller"-era silk-screened portrait of Michael Jackson created by Andy Warhol has sold for $812,500 to an anonymous collector.

The artwork sold at Christie's in New York City Tuesday evening.

Christie's estimated that the portrait would sell for $500,000 to $700,000.

The 1984 portrait depicts a smiling Jackson in a jacket with squiggles of red and yellow in his hair.

The auction house says the seller is an anonymous private collector based in New York who bought the image from the Andy Warhol Foundation in the 1990s. It did not say who bought the artwork.

The image was one of 47 lots auctioned Tuesday, including two other Warhol paintings.