Andy Warhol portrait that Donald Trump rejected goes up for auction in New York City

In 1981, budding real estate developer Donald Trump was still building the first project to bear his name: Trump Tower, on Fifth Avenue. Years later, he would shoot “The Apprentice” and headquarters his first political campaign there. He still has a residence on the penthouse floors.

But more than 40 years ago, to celebrate his new skyscraper, Trump wanted only the very best and most beautiful artwork for his lobby. So he commissioned a series of portraits of the building from perhaps the most iconic living American artist of the time: Andy Warhol.

One of the eight portraits in Warhol’s “New York Skyscrapers” series will be sold at auction at Phillips on Tuesday, and could blow past its estimated sale price of $500,000 to $700,000, according to Robert Manley, vice president and co-head of the modern and contemporary art department at Phillips. Artnet first reported the auction.

The auction house settled on this area after looking at comparable sales of Warhol images of cars and buildings, Manley said. As for how accurate the estimate will turn out?

“I talked to a collector two weeks ago and his opinion was that if Trump lost, this wouldn’t sell and nobody would buy it, and if Trump won, it would sell for a huge price,” Manley said . “It remains to be seen what will happen, but we have an initial interest.”

The background of the painting gives an insight into the social world of New York in the 1980s, as well as what the two figures made of each other.

“Had to meet Donald Trump in the office,” Warhol wrote in his diary in April 1981. “Donald Trump looks really good.”

The artist and the mogul had been introduced by Marc Balet, a former architect who, at the suggestion of their mutual acquaintance Fran Lebowitz, became the art director of Warhol’s “Interview” magazine.

Balet was working on a catalog for the stores in Trump Tower’s atrium, and Trump’s then-wife Ivana asked if he could have Warhol do portraits of the building to flank the entrance to the residence’s floors, Balet said in an interview from his home. in Connecticut.

“It was so strange, these people are so rich,” Warhol wrote of Trump and his entourage after the first meeting. “They were talking about buying a building yesterday for $500 million or something. They raved about Balducci’s lunch, but they just picked it. I think because they go around to so many things where there’s food. And they didn’t have drinks, they all just had Tabs. He’s a butch guy. Nothing was settled, but I’ll make some paintings and show them.”

After being hired in the spring of 1981, Warhol visited Trump’s office to photograph the architectural model of the rising Trump Tower and showed Balet early versions of the paintings—four in silver and four in gold, each sold as a set of images for $100,000 a set , said Ballet.

Warhol worked gold glitter and “diamond dust” of ground glass into the paintings to make the tower sparkle and shine in the light, according to Manley and channel what he thought the building’s aesthetic would be.

But when the Trumps finally saw the paintings in August, the real estate mogul didn’t like them and never paid for them, Warhol wrote.

“The Trumps came down. … I showed them the paintings of Trump Tower that I had done. … (I) it was a mistake to do so many, I think it confused them,” Warhol wrote, adding that Trump was upset that the series was not color-coordinated with the planned decor.

“I think Trump is a little cheap, but I get the feeling,” Warhol wrote. “And Marc Balet, who created it all, was kind of shocked.”

Balet remembered the event a little differently.

“They rejected the paintings because they thought Andy’s work wasn’t up to Trump standards,” Balet said. “Then Andy took it out on me. He was furious that he worked for nothing and was super angry at me, and then he got over it.”

The artist gave the paintings to a dealer in Switzerland, who later resold them to private collections, Manley said. Two of the works are now at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Warhol seemed to carry the sting of this rejection throughout his life, according to the diary. At Roy Cohn’s birthday party in February 1983, Warhol ran into Ivana Trump.

“She came over and when she saw me she was embarrassed and she said, ‘Oh, what happened to those pictures?’ and I had this speech in my mind about telling her, and I was in doubt whether to let her have it or not, and she tried to get away, and she did,” Warhol wrote.

A year later, Warhol was a referee for cheerleader tryouts for the New Jersey Generals, a football team that Trump had bought.

“I was supposed to be there at 12pm but I took my time and went to church and finally moseyed over there around 2pm. It’s because I still hate the Trumps because they never bought the paintings I did of Trump Tower,” wrote Warhol.

“I didn’t know how to score. The girls didn’t look special because there was no focus on them,” he wrote. “Ivana voted for any of the girls who looked like her.”

Months later, he echoed the sentiment: “I just hate the Trumps because they never bought my Trump Tower portraits,” Warhol wrote in May 1984. “And I also hate them because the cabs on the top level of their ugly Hyatt Hotel are just back . the traffic is so bad around Grand Central now and it takes me so long to get home.”

Balet called Warhol a shrewd businessman and was surprised that the artist did not receive money for the paintings in front.

“Andy was pretty cheap, too,” Balet said. “So it was two cheaper ones doing it to each other.”

Balet was surprised to learn that one of the Trump Tower paintings went up for sale Tuesday, and even more surprised to learn the estimated sale price.

“I should look around at my Warhols and see if I want to sell anything,” Balet said. “Maybe the prices are all going up again.”