Andy Warhol's Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) is expected as the highlight of Sotheby's New York auction season on November 13.
 Silver Car Crash will make its auction debut, having been in the same collection since 1988 and having only appeared in public once |
The monumental painting is one of only four "Car Crash" works, which hail from the pivotal Death and Disaster series, and is the only one remaining in private hands. It is expected to sell for more than $60m.
The current auction record for any piece of Andy Warhol's work is held by Green Car Crash (Burning Green Car 1), a 1963 piece that sold for $71.1m at Christie's in 2007. Warhol is currently the world's top-selling artist.
While Silver Car Crash could beat this record, it will face stiff competition from Warhol's Coca-Cola (3), a unique hand-painted piece that will appear at Christie's on November 12.
Warhol's Death and Disaster series is, according to Sotheby's, the artist most significant artistic achievement. Exploring many of the key themes of his work, it is among the most provocative and confrontational series of any artist in the 1960s.
The piece measures 8ft by 13ft and is one of four on this scale, with the remaining three belonging to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung, Vienna.
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