Warhol's Marilyn Monroe portrait estimated to fetch $200 mn at auction

Andy Warhol's iconic sage-blue background portrait of Marilyn Monroe is tipped to sell for a record-breaking $200 million at auction in the spring, Christie's announced Monday.

The auction house said it expects Warhol's 1964 "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" to become the most expensive 20th century artwork when it goes under the hammer in New York in May.

The silk-screen work is part of a group of Warhol portraits of Monroe that became known as the "Shot" series after a visitor to his Manhattan studio, known as "The Factory," apparently fired a gun at them.

In a statement, Christie's described the 40 inch (100 centimetre) by 40 inch portrait as "one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence."

Alex Rotter, head of 20th and 21st century art at Christie's, called the portrait "the most significant 20th century painting to come to auction in a generation."

"Andy Warhol's Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American Pop and the promise of the American Dream encapsulating optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography all at once," he said in a statement.

Warhol began creating silkscreens of Monroe following the actress's death from a drug overdose aged just 36 in August 1962.

The pop artist produced five portraits of Monroe, all equal in size with different colored backgrounds, in 1964.

According to pop-art folklore, four of them gained notoriety after a female performance artist by the name of Dorothy Podber asked Warhol if she could shoot a stack of the portraits.

Warhol said yes, thinking that she meant photographing the works. Instead, she took out a gun and fired a bullet through the forehead of Monroe's image.

The story goes that the bullet pierced four of the five canvases, with Warhol barring Podber from The Factory and later repairing the paintings -- the "Shot" series.

The "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" portrait portrays her with a pink face, red lips, yellow hair and blue eye shadow set against a sage-blue backdrop.

It was based on a promotional photograph of her for the 1953 movie "Niagara" directed by Henry Hathaway.