Are you a hard-working middle class liberal arts graduate with a deep appreciation for post-war Pop Art? Well if that's the case, too bad, because Andy Warhol's first New York City studio is back on the market, and it's definitely going to get snatched up be some multi-millionaire asshole. You might be able to expatiate on the post-Dada masscult genius of Campbell's Soup Cans, but in this town, historical authenticity gets sold to the Panama Papers guy in the Zenga loafers. He loves his coffee table book!
The studio, which is located at 159 East 87th Street, is currently listed for $10 million by brokerage Cushman & Wakefield—a stark contrast from the $150 per month rent that Warhol paid when he worked there from 1962-63 (during that year he lived a few blocks away at 1342 Lexington Avenue). The space itself is an out-of-use firehouse that's conveniently located near the Met and Guggenheim museums and is labeled by the real estate company as a "blank canvas" because yeah, you can see what they did there.
DNAinfo reports that the 5,000 square-foot space is currently being used to store art by dealer Wildenstein & Co., and was originally built as a Hook & Ladder 13 firehouse in 1910. According to Blouinartinfo, the studio was Warhol's staging ground for many of his "Disaster" paintings. The art site also reports that the lease for the 87th Street property—just the document, signed by Warhol himself—sold at a Sotheby's 2014 auction for $13,750.
