The renowned portrait was created as part of a series of screenprints entitled Reigning Queens, which contained 16 portraits of the four ruling queens at that time in the world: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Each was produced in a variety of different colours. In 2012, the Queen herself bought four of the portraits for The Royal Collection Trust to mark her Diamond Jubilee.
The 100cm x 80cm work is printed onto board and is signed ‘HC 3/3 Andy Warhol’, meaning ‘Hors Commerce’, or do not sell. Prints marked ‘HC’ only rarely make their way onto the open market and tend to drive up prices due to their scarcity.
Fractional ownership has become commonplace in fine art and valuable collectables; most recently, offerings of this nature have included artworks by Banksy and the £8 million Magenta stamp. Showpiece.com is dividing ownership of Warhol’s work into 3,500 pieces (or shares) that will be available for people to purchase this July.
Dan Carter, co-founder of Showpiece, released a statement which reads: ‘This is a moment in history, and we wanted to mark the Queen’s milestone of 70 years on the throne with an offering which would appeal to the many, not just a few. No one was more passionate than Andy Warhol about making art accessible to a broad audience, which is why it’s great that you don’t need a big chequebook anymore to own and enjoy one of his works. This is a stunning portrait of female leadership, and we are sure it will resonate with a broad audience.’
