Montauk, New York is celebrating its biggest estate sale ever after the closing on the 5.7-acre beachfront estate at $50 million that pop artist Andy Warhol bought in 1972 for $225,000.
The most recent owner of the compound was CEO of J. Crew, Mickey Drexler, who bought it in 2007 for $27 million. He listed it in 2015 for $85 million that included a 24-acre horse farm and equine center, which the buyer, Adam Lindemann, opted out of the purchase. Lindemann is the founder of the Venus Over Manhattan Gallery and a major collector of Warhol’s works making the property’s history especially significant for him.
Warhol’s first gig out of art school was as a fashion illustrator for several of the top women’s magazines. With the money acquired from his illustrations, he purchased a large loft on New York’s West Side and opened the Factory, where he turned toward creating industrial art. It wasn’t long before the Factory and Andy were attracting like-minded modernists from hippies to wannabe journalists and actors to drag queens and drug addicts. It was the start of New York’s avant-garde scene where Warhol held court. In addition to his painting, he branched out into music, film and journalism where he met Paul Morrissey who became the director of some of Warhol’s early films.
In 1972 when Warhol’s popularity and success were peaking, he and Morrissey decided to invest in property in the Hamptons and purchased the family fishing camp of the Church family of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda fame. The estate includes a 3,800-square-foot main house and five cottages completely hidden from public view with wide beaches and ocean views. Totaling almost 15,000 square feet with nine bedrooms and twelve baths, Drexler had it all meticulously restored by architect Thierry Despont.
Warhol’s stream of celebrity guests and renters put Montauk on the international map. Frequent guests included Liza Minnelli, Liz Taylor, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill. The parties were legendary and stories of happy days idled away on the Hamptons’ beach are recounted in many celebrity biographies.
Even though the Warhol home sale set a record at $50 million, his most famous paintings such as “Eight Elvises” and “Silver Car Crash” have sold for $100 million and higher. The listing agent was Paul Brennan of Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Montauk, New York.
Image Credits: Photo courtesy of TopTenRealEstateDeals.com.