Coke Bottle painting

The Coke Bottle painting is recorded through two snapshots of its market value in October and November 1983: first as an upcoming auction lot estimated at $100,000, then as a sale bringing $135,000. The change turns a brief note about a single painting into a measure of how Warhol watched his work’s price alongside those of other artists.

Estimate and uncertainty

On October 23, Warhol noted that one of his paintings was soon to be auctioned and estimated at $100,000. He thought it was a Coke Bottle. The entry registers both the anticipated sale and a small uncertainty about the work’s identification; it gives no auction house or buyer.

The reported result

By November 10, Warhol was happy with the Coke Bottle painting’s $135,000 price. He added that everyone thought it was good. Compared with the earlier estimate, the reported amount was $35,000 higher, making the shift from expectation to result the clearest fact in the painting’s brief record.

Prices in comparison

Warhol placed that result beside other art-market figures. He reported that Roy Cohn’s things went for five, six, or seven, while Jasper Johns’s reached a million. The diary does not specify units for the first range, so it remains a comparison as recorded rather than a precise monetary calculation. In the same November entry, Thomas Ammann told Warhol that the Elvis had sold for $146,000 and had bought a Flower painting for $40,000, which Warhol thought was worth much more. The Coke Bottle painting’s $135,000 price thus sits among a series of judgments about sale prices, perceived value, and the possibility that a work might command more in the future.