Andy Warhol’s Famous Farrah Fawcett Painting Was Worth $24 Million … So Why Did It Sell for $1.5 Million?

On November 20, 2024, the estate of Ryan O’Neal sold Andy Warhol‘s famous painting of Farrah Fawcett at auction through the Bonhams auction house for $1,512,500.

For most of us, that wouldn’t be considered a dirt cheap price … but it was for this iconic painting, which had been valued at $21-24 million. Why did it go for so little?

Andy Warhol painted two portraits of Farrah Fawcett in the 1980s. News show 20/20 filmed an episode documenting Warhol’s process making the paintings in 1980. In the episode, Farrah tells a crowd, “I asked him if he took my photograph if he then would paint it, and you all saw him nod yes.”

 

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Later, Farrah sat as Warhol himself took 40 Polaroid pictures of her in his studio. He then chose one and blew it up to a 40×40 canvas size, which he then painted and colorized. He created two 40×40 canvas images, and gifted both to Fawcett.

After Fawcett passed away in 2009, her will decreed that all of her art be donated to the University of Texas, including her two Warhol paintings. However, in 2009, O’Neal, Fawcett’s former boyfriend and father of their son Redmond, sued the University of Texas, stating that one of the Warhols was his, since Warhol gave him one, and it had hung in his home for years. The trial jury found in favor of O’Neal and granted him one of Farrah’s Warhols.

Where is the painting now?

Fast forward to 2018, when it was reported that the Farrah Warhol had been appraised to be worth between $21-$24 million. In 2019, Page Six claimed that O’Neal was “quietly” shopping for a buyer, with an asking price of $18-$20 million. He did not sell the painting then.

O’Neal passed away in 2023, and on November 20, 2024, the Fawcett Warhol painting was sold for $1.5 million. It is unknown why the painting sold for so little, especially since it was appraised at $24 million. The private collector who won the Bonhams auction definitely got a heavenly deal on a painting of an Angel.

The other Farrah Warhol is still in the collection of the University of Texas.

**Disclosure:** I was Farrah Fawcett’s assistant from 2005-2007, and testified at the 2013 trial for O’Neal vs. the University of Texas.