Triple Elvis

Triple Elvis is an Andy Warhol painting recorded in the diary through two successive accounts of its November 1983 auction. Its reported price exceeded the estimate, but a later figure relayed by Thomas Ammann differs from the first, leaving the precise result unresolved in the entries.

Auction Result

On November 8, Andy recorded that Triple Elvis had sold at auction the previous night for $135,000. The estimate had been $70,000–$90,000, so the reported result surpassed even the upper end of the estimate by $45,000. Andy described the price as good, treating the sale as a favorable outcome rather than merely noting the difference between estimate and result.

The same entry set the painting’s sale beside a much larger bid: Thomas Ammann had bid $440,000 for one of David Whitney’s Rauschenbergs. The comparison places Triple Elvis within an auction where works fetched sharply different sums, and gives the diary’s account of its price a concrete point of reference.

A Second Price and Other Purchases

Two days later, Andy again expressed satisfaction with the $135,000 price, this time referring to the Coke Bottle painting and noting that everyone considered the result good. He then recorded that Thomas said the Elvis had gone for $146,000. The diary does not explain the difference between that figure and the $135,000 written in the earlier entry; both remain part of its record of the sale.

Andy also noted that Thomas had bought a Flower painting for $40,000. In Andy’s view, it was worth considerably more, though he left the anticipated increase open-ended. Together, the figures for Triple Elvis, the Coke Bottle painting, and the Flower painting capture a recurring tension in these entries: an auction price registers present value, while judgments about what a work is worth—or may someday be worth—extend beyond the sale itself.