Andy Warhol’s Cologne Cathedral series (1985) stands as one of the most architecturally reverent and spiritually charged works in the artist’s late career. Created as a set of four screenprints in dazzling variations of color, these prints depict the iconic Gothic twin-spired façade of the Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom), a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most visited landmarks in Germany.
Introduction
Warhol was commissioned to create this series by German art dealer Hermann Wünsche during a time when the artist was increasingly celebrated in Europe, particularly in Germany. The Cologne Cathedral served not only as a symbolic choice, one of resilience, cultural pride, and Christian faith, but also as a striking visual subject. Warhol, known for elevating the banal and mass-produced to the level of fine art, here turns to a centuries-old symbol of divine aspiration and national heritage.
Each screenprint in the series transforms the cathedral through a Pop Art lens, layering silkscreen ink in saturated hues of red, gold, purple, blue, and black. The intricate linearity of the Gothic architecture is emphasized with fluorescent outlines and shadowed overlays, giving the structure an otherworldly aura. Warhol abstracts the stone edifice into a shimmering icon, much like he did with celebrities and soup cans, suggesting that spiritual monuments and cultural symbols are equally embedded in our collective visual consciousness.
The timing of the work is significant. Created just two years before Warhol’s death, it reflects the contemplative, occasionally solemn tone of his late oeuvre. Much like his The Last Supper series from the same period, Cologne Cathedral suggests a deeper, more metaphysical preoccupation, placing Warhol’s Pop idiom in dialogue with art history, religious symbolism, and architectural grandeur. Cologne Cathedral exemplifies his unique ability to fuse the sacred with the contemporary, rendering a Gothic masterpiece through the visual language of postmodern America. The work bridges the old world and the new, the ecclesiastical and the commercial, reflecting both the permanence of cultural monuments and the ephemerality of their reproductions.
Cologne Cathedral, 1985
Cologne Cathedral
The complete set of four screenprints in colors
Medium: Screenprint in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Year: 1985
Sheet: 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 inches (100×80 cm)
Edition: 60
Artist’s Proofs: 15 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 6 PP
Hors Commerce: 15 HC
Trial Proofs: 80 individual TP not in portfolios, signed and unnumbered
Publisher: Hermann Wünsche, Bonn, Germany
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New-York
Literature: Feldman & Schellmann II.361-364
Signed in pencil vertically lower right, and numbered in pencil lower right
With the printer’s blindstamp, the publisher’s inkstamp, and the artist’s copyright inkstamp on verso
1. Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.361)
2. Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.362)
3. Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.363)
4. Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.364)
2025 Auction Results
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.362), 1985
Lempertz: 31 May 2025
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 27,720 / USD 31,460
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.362), 1985
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered
Copyright stamp “© ANDY WARHOL 1985” verso
Proof 2/15 A.P. (+60 +6 P.P. +15 H.C.)
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.364), 1985
Lempertz: 31 May 2025
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 23,940 / USD 27,170
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.364), 1985
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered
Copyright stamp “© ANDY WARHOL 1985” verso
Proof 2/15 A.P. (+60 +6 P.P. +15 H.C.)
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.363), 1985
Lempertz: 31 May 2025
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 20,160 / USD 22,880
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.363), 1985
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered
Copyright stamp “© ANDY WARHOL 1985” verso
Proof 2/15 A.P. (+60 +6 P.P. +15 H.C.)
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.361), 1985
Lempertz: 31 May 2025
Estimated: EUR 6,000 – 8,000
EUR 13,860 / USD 15,730
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.361), 1985
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered
Copyright stamp “© ANDY WARHOL 1985” verso
Proof 2/15 A.P. (+60 +6 P.P. +15 H.C.)
2024 Auction Results
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.361), 1985
Ketterer Kunst Munich: 7 June 2024
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 30,480 / USD 33,223
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.361), 1985
Silkscreen in colors with “diamond dust” on Lenox Museum cardboard
Signed and numbered from an edition of 60 copies
Sheet 1 from the portfolio of the same name with a total of 4 color silkscreens
2023 Auction Results
Cologne Cathedral (TP), 1985
Lempertz: 2 December 2023
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 27,720 / USD 30,194
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.B 361-364), 1985
Color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Unique work from a series of 80 different color variations
Signed and stamped on verso
Cologne Cathedral (TP), 1985
Van Ham: 5 June 2023
Estimated: EUR 20,000
EUR 46,200 / USD 49,400
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral, 1985
Unique screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
An unnumbered trial proof apart from the edition of 60
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.361)
Lempertz: 31 May 2025
Estimated: EUR 6,000 – 8,000
EUR 13,860 / USD 15,730
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.361), 1985
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered
Copyright stamp “© ANDY WARHOL 1985” verso
Proof 2/15 A.P. (+60 +6 P.P. +15 H.C.)
Ketterer Kunst Munich: 7 June 2024
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 30,480 / USD 33,223
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.361), 1985
Silkscreen in colors with “diamond dust” on Lenox Museum cardboard
Signed and numbered from an edition of 60 copies
Sheet 1 from the portfolio of the same name with a total of 4 color silkscreens
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.362)
Lempertz: 31 May 2025
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 27,720 / USD 31,460
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.362), 1985
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered
Copyright stamp “© ANDY WARHOL 1985” verso
Proof 2/15 A.P. (+60 +6 P.P. +15 H.C.)
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.363)
Lempertz: 31 May 2025
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 20,160 / USD 22,880
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.363), 1985
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered
Copyright stamp “© ANDY WARHOL 1985” verso
Proof 2/15 A.P. (+60 +6 P.P. +15 H.C.)
Dorotheum Vienna: 1 December 2022
Estimated: EUR 20,000 – 30,000
EUR 23,040 / USD 27,000
ANDY WARHOL (Pittsburgh 1928–1987 New York)
“Cologne Cathedral” (Feldman/Schellmann II. 363), 1985
Screenprint in colors with diamond dust on cardboard
Signed Andy Warhol
No. 52 from an edition of 60 numbered copies
Hindman: 29 September 2022
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 31,250
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.363), 1985
Screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and inscribed PP 3/6 in pencil
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.364)
Lempertz: 31 May 2025
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 23,940 / USD 27,170
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.364), 1985
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered
Copyright stamp “© ANDY WARHOL 1985” verso
Proof 2/15 A.P. (+60 +6 P.P. +15 H.C.)
Trial Proofs
Lempertz: 2 December 2023
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 27,720 / USD 30,194
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F&S II.B 361-364), 1985
Color screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Unique work from a series of 80 different color variations
Signed and stamped on verso
Van Ham: 5 June 2023
Estimated: EUR 20,000
EUR 46,200 / USD 49,400
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral, 1985
Unique screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
An unnumbered trial proof apart from the edition of 60
imKinsky: 9 March 2022
Estimated: EUR 12,000 – 24,000
EUR 33,280 / USD 36,585
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral, 1985
Unique colored serigraph on Lenox Museum Board
Signed on the lower right: Andy Warhol
Stamp verso: © Andy Warhol 1985
Van Ham: 2 December 2020
Estimated: EUR 25,000 – 35,000
EUR 42,570 / USD 51,570
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral, 1985
Unique screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
An unnumbered trial proof apart from the edition of 60
Germann Zurich: 27 November 2019
Estimated: CHF 20,000 – 30,000
CHF 20,000 (Hammer)
CHF 24,700 / USD 24,750
ANDY WARHOL, 1928-1987 (US)
Cologne Cathedral, 1985
Silkscreen printed in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Unique work: One of 80 TP-copies
Some of them are with diamond dust. Each of these proofs is a unique work.
Signed at the lower right margin: Andy Warhol
Germann Zurich: 27 November 2019
Estimated: CHF 20,000 – 30,000
CHF 18,000 (Hammer)
CHF 22,260 / USD 22,305
ANDY WARHOL, 1928-1987 (US)
Cologne Cathedral, 1985
Silkscreen printed in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Unique work: One of 80 TP-copies
Some of them are with diamond dust. Each of these proofs is a unique work
Signed at the lower right margin: Andy Warhol
Sotheby’s London: 17 September 2019
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 32,500 / USD 40,630
ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
COLOGNE CATHEDRAL (SEE F. & S. IIB.361-364), 1985
Screenprint in a unique combination of colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, one of 80 trial proofs aside from the regular edition of 60
Complete Sets
Sotheby’s London: 29 September 2015
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 62,500 / USD 94,745
ANDY WARHOL
Cologne Cathedral (F. &. S. II.361-364), 1985
The complete portfolio comprising four screenprints in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Each signed in pencil, numbered 49/60