When I think of Andy Warhol, the famous American pop artist and filmmaker who was taught by his Slovakian parents to "Never to throw anything away," I somehow think of my grandmother in Ripley, West Virginia who saved everything from newspapers, magazines, and telephone books, to empty perfume bottles. You name it, she saved it. After her death it took a dump truck to haul away 50-60 years of clutter.
Today, 22 years after Andy Warhol's death in 1987 due to complications from gall bladder surgery, archivist's have been hired by the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to sift through 610 cardboard boxes, filing cabinets, and a large shipping container filled with what would be considered junk by most people today, but having a whole different meaning if it was collected by the famous Andy Warhol.
Archivists hired by the Andy Warhol Museum have six years to comb through everything from Taxi cab receipts and old plane tickets to fan mail, cataloguing, photographing, and researching the items before entering them into the museum's database.
Museum officials tell me that Warhol was never one to throw anything away. When he died in 1987 at age 59, his four story Manhattan townhouse was packed with tons of stuff wall to wall in shopping bags filled with antiques and other artifacts from his daily expeditions out shopping at antique malls and flea markets in Manhattan.
Museum officials go on to tell me the only rooms in Warhol's Manhattan townhouse that looked like a normal house were the bathroom and the kitchen. And there was no rhyme or reason to the collecting until about 1973. When a Warhol associate suggested the artist to carry a box around to dump things inside, each time capsule was filled, taped shut, dated, and later sent to a New Jersey storage facility in 1987 and later shipped to the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
In the 18 months since the project began, archivists have opened 177 boxes, each with an average of 400 items tucked inside and some containing many as 1,200 items. One box that was opened was said to have contained over $17,000 in cash, including antique jewelry appraised at over $1 million, and an autographed picture of a naked Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. How this photo came about, I'll tell you later in this article.
Another box opened by archivists contained a mummified human foot, once belonging to an ancient Egyptian, and a Ramones 45 rpm record signed by the punk rock band's lead singer, Joey Ramone. Did I mention the orange stale nut bread that also ended up in the box that was sent to Warhol by one of his Pittsburgh area cousins with a note telling him to enjoy it with a cup of coffee. Also included in the box was a piece of crusty wedding cake that left archivists wondering whose it was, and a postal box from Paris that still leaves archivists scratching their heads wondering who sent it.
Museum officials tell me Warhol had so many possessions that it took Sotheby's Auction House in New York nine days to auction his estate after his death in 1987. The auction grossed more than $20 million.
On Sept. 24-25, spouses of 19 heads of state and representatives of the European Union are coming to Pittsburgh to get a sneak peek at the paper, stamps, photos, gifts, and nick nacks that once made up Warhol's life and a sneak preview inside some of the boxes.
Guess who else has been sent an invitation to attend? Along with their press release, "Yours truly." But who wants to wear white smocks and gloves, just as the Archivists have to wear while sifting through the boxes, smelling decades old empty Campbell Soup cans that Warhol was also said to have dumped down in the boxes everyday at noon 365 days a year, a promise he made to the Campbell's Soup Company never to eat any other soup but their brand upon Warhol designing the soup company's logo.
Readers, are your still wondering whose wedding cake it was? After pumping museum officials on the phone to write this article, I found it's believed to be from Caroline Kennedy's wedding in 1986 to Edwin Schlosburg. And where is the piece of wedding cake today? In the trash.
How did Warhol come to possess a naked photo of Jackie Kennedy Onasis, "Wondering minds also want to know?" As it happens, Jackie was a frequent visitor to Warhol's beachfront estate in Montauk, New York. So, after her second husband, Onassis, got a paparazzi to take pictures of her skinny dipping somehow, someway, it landed in the hands of Larry Flynt, who turned it into a poster for his pornography magazine, "Hustler." Jackie sent a copy, likely as a joke, to Warhol. If you have an urge to see this poster of Jackie O, you can by visiting the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, where it is today on display, and tell them Larry sent you.
AUCTION RESULTS
The following is a list of items that have sold recently on the auction block:
Decanter, 20 inch, tangerine color w/stopper signed by Wayne Husted Blenko Glass, Milton, WV, numbered 59221 - $275
Snack jar (beaded frosted glass w/lid), Imperial Glass Company, Bellaire, OH - $795
Boyd Crystal Glass, Cambridge, OH, "Joey Horse" Robina #48 figural, 1985 - $130
Aunt Jemima Pancake Grill model #706B - $2,000
Bank "Elsie the Cow" chalkware, 1950s - $325
Canisters (Blue Willow) barrel shape, Japan, 4-piece - $550
Popeye Pocket Watch made by New Haven, 1935 - $1,000
Batman Helmet & Cape, plastic, new mint in box, 1966 - $450
Sprinkle bottle (Cat), American Bisque, Williamstown, WV - $400
Levi Jeans 501, size xx, 1940s - $1,100
McCoy Leprechaun Cookie Jar - $1,800
Beer can ( Bararossa), Red Top Brewing Company, Cincinnati, OH, 1951 - $120
Mr. Peanut (Costume), 1950s - $1,350
Pitcher (large), Akro Agate, Clarksburg, WV- $1,200
Salt & Pepper Shakers (Primrose Pattern), white w/decal, pair - $275
Coffee Pot, "Jewel Tea," 30 cup - $600
Beatles Cartoon (Color forms) new mint in box - $900
Black Cats Spice Set, 4 cat shakers, by Shafford - $600
Barbie (Holiday Barbie), 1988, new still in box - $325
Elephant Sprinkle Bottle (For Clothes), elephant trunk forms handle, American Bisque, Williamstown, WV (Rare) - $700
Cookie Jar, Bambi, California Originals, USA 868 - $1,250
Cookie Jar, "Mugsy," Shawnee Pottery, Zanesville, OH - $1,800 (Rare)
Paper Weight, floral bouquet with 5 teardrop bubbles, 1950s, Degenhart Glass, Cambridge, OH - $250
Punch Set, 15 piece, 1956-1963, Fenton Glass, Williamstown, WV - $725
Doorstop, "Alley Cat," purple slag glass, Fenton Glass, Williamstown, WV - $450
Chip N Dip (Milk Glass), 1970-71, Fenton Glass, Williamstown, WV - $700
Student Lamp, "Circle Of Love," Cranberry, 18 inch Fenton Glass, Williamstown, WV - $500
Cookie Jar, "Gingerbread Man," Hull Pottery, Crooksville, OH - $650
Longaberger Basket, Dresden, OH, "Perfect Attendance Basket" given to employees of the company, July 1, 1997 to June 20, 1998 - $425
Lunch Box, metal, Action Jackson, 1970s - $750
Superman Novelty Telephone, ATE, 1979, new still in the box - $950
Clock Plate, (Currier & Ives), 12 inch, Royal China, Sebring, OH - $1,000
Readers, do you have items you want to know the value of, or where to sell them for top dollar on the auction block? Write me, Larry Koon, C/O The Marietta Register, 102 Putnam St., Marietta, OH 45750. Or send me an email at talkingantiques@yahoo.com. See you right back here in the next issue of The Marietta Register, you hear. In the meantime, check out those yard sales and garage sales. You just never know what you may run across.