A Major Art Find

I had a bit of insomnia the other night, and found myself up at 4am watching a documentary on Andy Warhol on PBS. It was interesting, I think simply because Warhol was such a fascinating figure, and it was difficult for the ramblings of the various pseudo-intellectuals the film interviewed to dull my fascination. So anyway, towards the end of the first part there was mention of a show of Elvis paintings he did in LA in the early 60s. It was a bunch of silk screens of the same picture of Elvis dressed as a cowboy pointing his gun at the camera. I rewound the show back and looked at them again (I still had TiVo even after Mads left and I didn't need it for Reba and Days anymore). I had one of those Elvises (Elvi?), and it was hanging on the big wall behind me. It was one where he overlapped three of the same image.

I called my friend Bob Sceriffo, a well respected art appraiser. Though being a little upset that I woke him at 4:45, when I told him the deal, he rushed right over.

"Jesus, man, this is real. This is post-Soup Cans, but still before he was the pop icon we knew him as. If I had to put a price on it, I'd say it's like $1.2 million. I thought Irving Bloom had them all together."

"That's hot."

"Where'd you come across this?"

"Yard sale, 'bout seven years back. The guy wanted $10 for it, but I talked him down to five."