Back in 1967

“Back in 1967, there were two women who wanted to work for Andy Warhol. They go to his gallery, it’s called Leo Castelli, and they meet his gallery director, a guy named Ivan Karp, and they say, “Hey we want to work for Andy.” And he says, “Just a minute.” He gets Warhol on the phone. I mean you could do that in those days, it was a different world. And he says, “Hey, I’ve got two squirrels here who want to come work for you.” Anyway, they go to work for him. One of them sticks it out, the other one, I think, quit. After working for him for a year, and she was not getting paid, he was working on these self-portraits, and Warhol says to her, “Here, why don’t you pick one out.” OK, these paintings are 22-inches square. And she picks out, I don’t doubt the woman had a sixth sense, one of the best ones I’ve ever seen: purple, red and green, killer pop colors, just beautiful. Anyway, flash forward, she’s hung on to that painting until now. Decides to finally bring it out. And it’s coming up at Sotheby’s. Estimate $1 million to a $1.5, unbelievable, instant millionaire.” —
Richard Polsky