Jasper Johns' antique painting Flag sells for £19 million
The iconic American artist's work was found in art collection belonging to late American author Michael Critchton.
Myriad items from late author Michael Critchton's personalcollection of antique paintings, including Flag by Jasper Johns,have gone under the hammer in New York. The auction at Christie's saw the iconic 1960s artwork go for around £19 million - the biggest selling single piece of thelot. The American writer, who penned Jurassic Park and created showslike ER and West wood, also had masterpieces by Picasso, DavidHockney and Jeff Koons.
In its entirety, the lot went for £62.5 million. Critchton died of cancer in 2008, just decades after buying Flagfrom Johns himself in 1978. The deputy chairman of Christie's Americas, Brett Gorvy, toldthe London Evening Standard that the image "changed the whole course of art history".
"It is alongside Picasso's Guernica and Warhol's Marilyn Monroeor the Mona Lisa," he added. Another antique painting - Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust- recently sold at the same auction house for the record sum of£70.2 million.