Man Buys Warhol Sketch for $5 - East Idaho News
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Man Buys Warhol Sketch for $5

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Getty 040312 AndyWarhol?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1333474716249Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987). Nancy R. Schiff/Hulton Archive/Getty Images(LONDON) — A British businessman made the best deal of his life when he unknowingly purchased an early Andy Warhol drawing for $5 at a Las Vegas garage sale.

Andy Fields bought five paintings in 2010 from a man who had abused drugs and whose aunt had cared for Warhol in his youth, Fields told  the U.K.’s Sun. It was only when Fields decided to have one of the paintings reframed that he learned that the forgotten Warhol could fetch $2 million at auction.

“I was reframing one of the pictures and took the backing off and saw a picture looking back at me and recognized the bright red lips of an Andy Warhol,” Fields told the BBC.

The signed drawing on tattered paper is believed to be of Rudy Vallee, a well-known singer in the 1930s. Warhol would have been about 10 years old at the time he completed the sketch, which reflects the beginning of Warhol’s pop art style.

Fields said he had no plans to sell the drawing just yet and would like to put in on display.

Warhol’s paintings have gone for millions on the auction block.

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