The Star
from Myths

Medium: Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board with diamond dust
Year: 1981
Sheet: 38×38 inches (96.5 x 96.5 cm)
Edition: 200
Artist’s Proofs: 30 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 5 PP
Exhibitor’s Proofs: 5 EP
Hors Commerce: 4 HC
Trial Proofs: 30 TP in unique color combination, most with diamond dust
(see Feldman & Schellmann IIB.258)
Publisher: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York
Printer: Rupert Jasen Smith, New-York
Literature: Feldman & Schellmann II.258

Each signed in pencil, and numbered with the artist’s copyright inkstamps on the reverse

The Star is part of Myths
(Click on picture below to access the Catalogue Entry)

In The Star, Warhol immortalizes Greta Garbo at the peak of her celebrity in the guise of the eponymous character from the 1931 film Mata Hari. Based on the exotic dancer convicted as a German spy during World War I, the film became a sensation in America and Europe, cementing the legend of Mata Hari and the stardom of Garbo. Warhol’s tribute, however, is not celebrating the infamous character the actress played but the iconicity of Garbo herself.

While his female icons of the 1960s were born out of his contemporaneous preoccupations with the cult of celebrity, The Star derives from the theme of reinvestigation that embodies the artist’s mature practice from the late 1970s until his death. Here he takes his own visual lexicon developed in the early 1960s one step further by selecting the press photo of the actress in the guise of her character as his source image. Warhol’s insistent link between fame and nostalgia often generated from his appropriation of earlier photography is abundantly present here. Indeed this publicity photo of Garbo predates the painting by nearly half a century and foreshadows her sudden retirement from acting in 1941 at the age of 35 after starring in nearly 30 films. His choice to return to the image some five decades later underlines his fascination with the endurance of iconicity.

The Star (Greta Garbo as Mata Hari), 1981

Phillips New-York: 18 May 2022
Estimated: USD 7,000,000 – 10,000,000
USD 9,580,000

Andy Warhol – 20th Century & Contemporar… Lot 26 May 2022 | Phillips

ANDY WARHOL
The Star (Greta Garbo as Mata Hari), 1981
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
60×60 inches (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Signed “Andy Warhol” on the overlap

“Someone once asked me to state once and for all the most beautiful person I’d ever met. Well, the only people I can ever pick out as unequivocal beauties are from the movies.”

Andy Warhol’s The Star (Greta Garbo as Mata Hari) marks the artist’s celebrated return to one of his most enduring preoccupations: celebrity and commodification. The present work extends the legacy of Warhol’s earliest investigations into these concepts, defined by his now iconic images of starlets such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Closely related to the candy-colored paintings of Marilyn and Liz from the early 1960s, in the present work, Warhol once again displays his prowess with color. Emerging from a lava red background, Warhol articulates the details of Mata Hari’s elaborate costume and boldly offsets Garbo’s luminous skin with blue eyeshadow and scarlet lips. Conceived as part of his Myths series in 1981, The Star is an iconic tribute to one of the major silver screen goddesses in the artist’s Pop pantheon. Rarely seen in public, the present work has resided in the same private collection for over three decades.

In many ways, Warhol had always felt he and Garbo were two sides of a single coin. Indeed, the elusive Garbo was arguably the Hollywood starlet that impressed Warhol’s sensibility the most. Since his youth, the artist consciously fashioned himself after Garbo, adopting her poses in photographs. The Star forms part of Warhol’s Myths that assembled a cast of ten nostalgic figures from childhood including Santa Claus, Mickey Mouse, Uncle Sam, Howdy Doody, and Superman. As Greg Metcalf notes, “While these mythic figures carry a range of important cultural attributes, their shared celebrity stature arises from their being heroes of commercial art. Each of these cultural icons is also a commercial icon, a ‘logo,’ the symbol of a corporate identity. Each is also an artistic creation from which the artist has been erased.” However, The Star and The Shadow, which sees Warhol place himself in the character of the crime-fighting hero from the 1930s radio show, are distinguished in the series: it is not the characters themselves which act as the protagonist but rather Garbo as Mata Hari and Warhol as The Shadow who are the commercial icons. In so doing he intentionally blurs the boundary between individual and symbol, artist and celebrity, hero and commodity.

 

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Auction Market Overview

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Regular Editions

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Mainichi Auction: 7 February 2026
Estimated: JPY 6,000,000 – 8,000,000
Lot #0198
JPY 7,820,000 / USD 49,745

ANDY WARHOL
The Star from MYTHS, 1981
(F & S.II.258)
Screenprint, diamond dust
Signed, editioned with a copyright stamp on verso
From the edition of 200

XXXXXXXXXX

Sotheby’s New-York: 15 April 2025
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 82,550

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
The Star, from Myths (Feldman & Schellmann II.258), 1981
Screenprint in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil on the verso and numbered 126/200
Also signed and inscribed to Michael and Deborah

Sotheby’s online: 26 March 2025
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 50,800 / USD 65,532

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
The Star, from Myths (Feldman & Schellmann II.258), 1981
Screenprint in colours with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil verso and numbered 2/200

Mainichi: 21 February 2025
Estimated: JPY 6,000,000 – 8,000,000
JPY 7,565,000 / USD 51,625

ANDY WARHOL
The Star from Myths (FELDMAN & SCHELLMANN II.258), 1981
Screenprint and diamond dust
Signed and editioned with a copyright stamp on verso
From the edition of 200

Christie’s online: 14 February 2025
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 60,480

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
The Star, from Myths (Feldman and Schellmann II.258), 1981
Screenprint in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil on the reverse, numbered 135/200 (there were also 30 artist’s proofs)

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Van Ham: 27 November 2024
Estimated: EUR 30,000 – 50,000
EUR 72,540 / USD 76,585

ANDY WARHOL (1928 Pittsburgh, PA/USA – 1987 New York)
The Star, from: Myths (Feldman/Schellmann II.258), 1981
Color silkscreen with diamond dust on Lenox museum card
Signed and numbered 27/30 AP

Phillips London: 6 June 2024
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 50,000
GBP 50,800 / USD 64,770

ANDY WARHOL
The Star, from Myths (F. & S. 258), 1981
Screenprint in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum board
Signed and numbered 56/200 in pencil (there were also 30 artist’s proofs)

ANDY WARHOL
The Star (from Myths), 1981
Screenprint in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed and numbered 113/200 in pencil on the reverse

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Christie’s online: 27 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 88,200 / USD 107,100

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
The Star, from: Myths, 1981
Screen-print in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil on the reverse, numbered 42/200

Martini Studio d’Arte: 6 June 2023
Estimated: EUR 40,000 – 50,000
EUR 35,000 (Hammer)
EUR 43,750 / USD 46,790
(NEW ADDITION)

ANDY WARHOL
The Star from Myths, 1981
Color screenprint with diamond dust on Lenox Museum board
Edition: 185/200
Signed on the back
Artist’s stamp on the back

Sotheby’s New-York: 19 April 2023
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 69,850

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
The Star, from Myths, 1981
Screen-print in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil on the verso and numbered 12/200

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Mainichi Auction: 23  April 2022
Estimated: JPY 5,000,000 – 7,000,000
JPY 9,500,000 (Hammer)
JPY 12,350,000 / USD 96,110

ANDY WARHOL
The Star from Myths (FELDMAN & SCHELLMANN II.258), 1981
Screenprint and diamond dust
Signed and editioned with a copyright stamp on verso
From the edition of 200

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Christie’s New-York: 20 July 2021
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 100,000

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
The Star, from Myths, 1981
Screenprint in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil on the reverse and numbered ‘PP 2/5’ on the reverse
A printer’s proof, the edition was 200

Sotheby’s New-York: 22 April 2021
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 94,500

ANDY WARHOL (1928 – 1987)
The Star (Feldman & Schellmann II.258), from Myths, 1981
Screenprint in colors with diamond dust on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil on the verso and numbered 4/200

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LA Modern: 16 February 2020
Estimated: USD 45,000 – 65,000
USD 56,250

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
The Star (from Myths), 1981
Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
Edition: #12 of 200
Signed with edition in graphite sheet verso
Stamped date and publisher information sheet verso

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The Star (/200), 1981
Forum Auctions: 25 September 2019
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 40,000
GBP 35,000 (Hammer)
GBP 45,920 / USD 56,745

The Star (49/200), 1981
Mainichi Auctions Tokyo: 20 April 2019
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
JPY 4,600,000 (Hammer)
JPY 5,750,000 / USD 51,370

The Star (17/200), 1981
LA Modern: 17 February 2019
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 62,500

The Star (PP 4/5), 1981
Christie’s New-York: 24 October 2018
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 62,500

The Star (/200), 1981
SBI Art Auction: 27 January 2018
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 7,000,000
JPY 6,095,000 / USD 56,145

The Star (45/200), 1981
Christie’s New-York: 25 October 2017
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 62,500

The Star (121/200), 1981
Sotheby’s New-York: 28 April 2017
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 52,500

The Star (93/200), 1981
Christie’s London: 29 March 2017
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 45,500 / USD 58,930

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Bukowskis Stockholm: 12 May 2015
Estimated: SEK 800,000 – 1,000,000
SEK 860,000 (Hammer)
SEK 1,075,000 / USD 129,475
AUCTION RECORD FOR THE STAR

ANDY WARHOL (United States, 1928-1987)
“The Star” (Greta Garbo), from: “Myths”, 1981
Silkscreen in colors and with diamond dust
Signed in pencil and numbered EP 1/5 (Exhibition proof) on verso
CONDITION NOTE: Very good condition. Print not previously exposed to light

 

 

 

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Trial Proofs

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The Star (TP 6/30)

Sotheby’s London: 29 September 2015
Estimated: GBP 25,000 – 35,000
GBP 81,250 / USD 123,165
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL
The Star (F. & S. IIB.258) from Myths, 1981
Screenprint in a unique combination of colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, numbered ‘TP 6/30’
A trial proof aside from the edition of 200 (total edition includes 30 artist’s proofs)

The Star (TP 19/30)

Christie’s Los Angeles: 13 December 1999
Estimated: USD 4,000 – 6,000
USD 8,050
TRIAL PROOF

ANDY WARHOL
The Star, for Myths (F. and S. B.258), 1981
Unique screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board
Signed in pencil, numbered ‘T.P. 19/30’
One of 30 unique color variants aside from the edition of 200 plus 30 artist’s proofs

 

Other Trial Proofs with unidentified numbering