Playboy ‘Mouth’ laps up a cool $1.8 million
NEW YORK -- A Dali watercolor of a reclining nude that hung in Hugh Hefner's bedroom was among 125 artworks Playboy magazine offered at Christie's on Wednesday.
It was one of 11 works chosen for "The Playmate as Fine Art" pictorial for the magazine's January 1967 Playmate review issue that asked artists to create Playmate-inspired art. The nude sold for $266,500, above its presale estimate of $100,000 to $150,000, to an anonymous buyer.
Another top draw was an iconic, sexually charged oil of a scarlet-lipstick mouth by pop artist Tom Wesselmann. "Mouth No. 8" sold for $1,874,500 to an anonymous buyer. The 1966 work had been estimated to bring $2 million to $3 million.
