Warhol Painting of MJ May Fetch Millions
A rare Andy Warhol painting of Michael Jackson hits the online auction block Tuesday.
The Vered Gallery, of posh East Hampton on New York's Long Island, is conducting the bidding, and says the painting is one of only five of the King of Pop by "the King of Pop Art."
The painting has toured the world in the weeks preceding the auction, reports CBS News Correspondent Ben Tracy, and the sellers, whom Vered isn't naming, have put an opening bid of $800,000 on it.
The painting was done for Time Magazine's cover in 1984, when Jackson was 25 and at the top of his career, with "Thriller" ruling the charts.
"It is Michael Jackson at his best," says Vered.
Over the last 25 years, the work has passed through the hands of several collectors, reports CBS News Correspondent Ben Tracy and, for the past two weeks, it's been on a world tour, getting rock star treatment.
In London, it took center stage at the O2 Arena, where Jackson was to perform in the comeback tour he was rehearsing for when he died.
Six thousand miles later, it was in Los Angeles, where it was to be on exhibit for the two days leading up to the auction.
Vered's Janet Lehr observes that, "The attention that's given to Warhol, and now the attention that's going to be given to Michael Jackson, in combination, it will be like the Mona Lisa coming to the Metropolitan Museum (of Art)."
Whether this work ends up in a museum or a private collection won't be known until the auction concludes, of course.
But the sellers, whom Tracy says bought the painting for $278,000 in May, are now hoping it goes for many millions. Vered isn't identifying them. The opening bid is $800,000.
Other Warhol portraits of American icons, such as Muhammad Ali and Marilyn Monroe, have sold for plenty -- $28 million in Monroe's case.
"It's more memorabilia than fine art," says Warhol collector and author Richard Polsky. "If you ranked Warhol's paintings on a scale of one-to-ten, with ten being the highest, I'd give this (one) a solid three-and-a-half. ... The painting's probably worth $350,000."
But Vered says, "It's part of art history, it's part of our tradition, it's going to be more and more important."