Although nobody knows what Andy Warhol was thinking when he made a screen print of Elizabeth Taylor's face in 1963, chances are it was probably "I just hope that one day this painting makes the stuttering git from Music And Lyrics rich."
And what do you know, it has. Last night Hugh Grant auctioned off the Andy Warhol screen print of his entitled “Liz (Colored Liz”) in New York, and sold it for $23.7 million – seven times what he'd originally paid for it. Nobody knows what Hugh Grant will spend all this new Warhol money on – maybe he'll invest it back into art or try to develop a new kind of aerodynamic baked bean that flies better when you hurl it at a photographer – but the main thing is that it keeps Hugh Grant so busy that he doesn't get the chance to make any more films for a while.
Who'd have thought that Hugh Grant was in possession of a talent that doesn't involve basically playing the exact same character doing the exact same thing in a procession of romantic comedies so formulaic that they all may as well be called Hugh Grant Romantic Comedy 6: The One With Sandra Bullock In It or Hugh Grant Romantic Comedy 13: The One Where His Love Interest Is So Young You'll Feel Creepy Just Watching It?
But, anyway, he does. As well as being the the world's most miserably reluctant grouch of a film star – and being impossibly good at chucking foodstuffs at the paparazzi – it seems that Hugh Grant also has a keen eye for art. Especially high on Hugh Grant's art appreciation list is a little-known painter called Andy Warhol, who had a tiny part in that movie about Sienna Miller's vagina from earlier this year.
Apparently Hugh Grant bought a Warhol screen print of Elizabeth Taylor six years ago for $3.6 million. It might have been because Hugh Grant was a fan of Warhol's revolutionary screen print technique, or because Hugh Grant saw a picture called Liz, realised that his girlfriend at the time was also called Liz and that they both had dark hair, but whatever the reason it was a pretty sound investment, because last night Hugh Grant's Warhol was auctioned off at Christie's for $23.7 million.
It could have been more, of course – the painting had an estimate of up to $35 million, but only two people wanted it – but $23.7 million is nothing to be sniffed at. For example, we've worked out that with the $23.7 million that Hugh Grant earnt himself at the auction yesterday, he could buy 1,917,440 copies of Mickey Blue Eyes on DVD and spend the next 371 years watching them all end-to-end.
Again, anything that stops him from making films is OK with us.
John says
Christ…I’m surprised anyone would pay $23 million for that painting, a child could have done better. Grant is laughing all the way to the bank!