Blue or orange flowers on a black background: two relatively small paintings by pop art icon Andy Warhol and a work by David Hockney will go under the hammer on Lake Constance.
Radolfzell (dpa / lsw) – Such pieces are usually auctioned in New York or London: But three works by Andy Warhol and David Hockney will now go under the hammer in Radolfzell on October 8th. The starting bids for the two Warhols are 100,000 euros, the Hockney 120,000. “In Germany, two works by Warhol were last sold in Berlin – each for 132,000 euros, and that was back in 2005,” said auctioneer Udo Geble.
The three originals are from the collection of Drue Heinz, third wife of H.J. Heinz II. Heinz was president of the ketchup empire founded by his grandfather from 1941 to 1966. He died in 1987, his wife at the age of 103 in 2018. Most of the works by the art-loving widow, who lives in England and Scotland, New York and Lake Como, were auctioned in New York and London. She had given some of the smaller ones to her long-time administrator and driver – as a thank you for his loyal service. They have been in a southern German private collection since 2019 and from there they came to the Geble auction house.
The two Warhols depict flowers in orange and light blue “in front of tufts of grass,” as the description states. On the back of the canvas of the light blue is the handwritten dedication: “Drue 1975 Love” and Warhol’s signature. 136 of these were made by Warhol in 1964, but each is different, each an original.
Hockney also personally dedicated his watercolor to Drue. It shows a view of Lake Como from her Villa Maresi. Born in England, she liked to have visitors: in addition to writers and artists, Lady Di, George Clooney and Kofi Annan were guests.
