A Vancouver art dealer is suing the Andy Warhol Foundation over the sale of a series of Polaroids (seen below) that the late artist Warhol snapped of a mullet-sporting Wayne Gretzky 30 years ago.
According to CBC.ca, the dealer, Frans Wynans, filed a claim with the British Columbia Supreme Court last week stating that he hired Warhol to paint a series of portraits of Gretzky in 1983, just before Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers went on a run of four Stanley Cup championships in five years.
TheProvince.com reports that the claim states Wynans paid Warhol $175,000 for the six original paintings — one of which was later sold to Gretzky himself — and paid Gretzky's company $50,000 plus royalties for the rights to use Gretzky's name and likeness to sell the art.
Gretzky met with Warhol at his New York studio, called The Factory, in the summer of 1983, where the photos — one of which would become the basis for the six works of art — were taken.
When Warhol died in 1987, he left the Polaroids behind, and in February, his foundation sold four of them in an online auction at Christie’s. A search of the Christies.com website shows a single photo of Gretzky that sold for $9,375, as well as a collection of four photos in another lot that sold for $11,250.
Wynans told TheProvince.com that the photos in question are the ones in the set of four.
