Andy Warhol’s works not seen in public for 15 years may fetch $80 million at auction | Andy Warhol

Six months after a live picture of Marilyn Monroe appeared, she broke records Sold for $195 Milliona darker, more brutal work by pop artist Andy Warhol that may be on the cusp of a big buck.

White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times) — recurring black and white photographs across a gigantic 12-foot-high by 6-foot-wide canvas — is expected to sell for at least $80 million in New York next month.

It is part of Warhol’s Death and Disaster series in the 1960s that reflects the artist’s preoccupation with the yard. The last great painting about death and disaster sold at auction, the Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), fetched $105 million in 2013.

Sotheby’s, which will auction the piece on behalf of a private owner on November 16, described it as a “huge masterpiece”. It has not been shown to the public for more than 15 years.

Referring to Warhol’s devout Catholicism, Sotheby’s said, “There is no doubt that the physical size of a painting—the largest of all Warhol’s works to collide with a single painting—has the potential to evoke a sense of awe and respect akin to something a religious altarpiece.” Indeed, religious connotations span to work far beyond just its scope.”

It quotes art historian John Richardson as saying, “The whole repetition of Andy’s portrayal stems from his being a Catholic. He went to church, he went to confession, and he had to do 10 Hail Mary, 20 Ave Marias, and all of this is reflected in the way his portraits are repeated. Repeatedly “.

Warhol began silkscreening photos of car crashes, plane crashes, and other disasters in the early 1960s, using photos from newspapers and police archives as sources.

“When you see a horrific picture over and over again, it doesn’t really have any effect,” he said in an interview in 1963.

Warhol was raised by his devout Catholic mother, Julia, with whom he prayed daily for the two decades they shared a home in New York. He would go to church regularly, meet the Pope, and fund his nephew’s studies to become a priest.