How much is an idea worth? $50? $50 million?
In 1961, Andy Warhol was freaking out. Other artists were getting ahead of him and making Pop Art into a movement.
He brought it up at a small get-together. Aspiring gallery owner Muriel Latow said she had an idea, but she wouldn’t tell him unless he wrote her a check for $50 right then and there.
She delivered. “You’ve got to find something that’s recognizable to almost everybody. Something like a can of Campbell’s Soup.”
A trip to the grocery store the next morning to buy one of each of the 32 varieties.
In May 2006, Warhol’s “Small Torn Campbell Soup Can (Pepper Pot)” (1962) sold for $11,776,000, setting the current auction world record for a soup can painting. That’s just one of the 32 original paintings. The series includes 50 paintings in total, and hundreds of prints that typically sell in the mid-five figures.
You might interpret this story as a parable about ideas versus execution. But it’s really about so much more.
