CHICAGO — The original Shepard Fairey “Hope” portrait of former President Barack Obama has sold in an auction for $735,000.
The iconic red and blue portrait was displayed in April as part of Expo Chicago by Heritage Auctions, which reported the sale Friday. It was created in 2008 by the Los Angeles-based street artist as a form of grassroots activism to support then-Sen. Obama’s first campaign. Fairey based the image on an Associated Press photograph by Mannie Garcia.
According to the announcement from Heritage, although the work has since been recreated many times, just three original large-scale, mixed-media stenciled collages were made by the artist. Of the other two, one is in a private collection, the other resides in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.
Overall, Heritage’s Modern & Contemporary Art auction Thursday realized a total of $2,977,438.
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