The Andy Warhol painting that put him at odds with Donald Trump has a new owner

The Andy Warhol painting that put him at odds with Donald Trump has a new owner

In 1981, six years before his death, Andy Warhol devoted the spring to a limited series of paintings commissioned by Donald Trump. The American tycoon, then 34 years old, asked the artist for paintings inspired by Trump Tower, which was still under construction, to adorn the atrium of his first architectural project, located at 725 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. “New York Skyscrapers stands as a testament to Warhol’s ability to encapsulate the spirit of an era characterized by excess, and it remains a powerful commentary on the pursuit of the American Dream as seen through the lens of one of the 20th century’s most iconic artists,” says the Phillips auction house, which has now sold one of the paintings for $952,500. But Trump did not like it at all. “Mr. Trump was very upset that it wasn’t color-coordinated,” Warhol wrote in his diary on August 5, 1981. So Trump rejected all eight of Warhol’s works and refused to pay him. “They’re going to come down with swatches of material so I can do the paintings to match the pinks and oranges. I think Trump’s sort of cheap, though, I get that feeling,” the artist wrote.

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