The catalogue number, and who signed it
More work resembling a Warhol print exists than for any comparable artist, and a good deal of it is perfectly legal. That is the problem.
Warhol made the image reproducible on purpose, and the market has been living with the consequence ever since. Authorised editions, posthumous estate impressions, legally published prints after him, exhibition posters and outright copies all circulate together, and several of those categories are indistinguishable from across a room.
Two things do most of the work in settling which is which. Every authorised print has a number in the Feldman & Schellmann catalogue raisonné, and since the authentication board closed in 2011 there has been no body issuing opinions — so documentation and provenance carry weight here that they would not have to carry elsewhere.
Five things to check
01Photograph the whole sheet, margins included
Not the image cropped to its edges. The margins carry the signature, the numbering, any stamp and the paper's character, and they are where the question is actually answered. A tightly cropped photograph of a Warhol image tells us almost nothing.
02Photograph the reverse
This is where a Sunday B. Morning declares itself, where estate and foundation stamps sit, and where inventory numbers are written. More Warhol questions are settled by the back of the sheet than by the front.
03Find the catalogue number if you can
An F&S number places a sheet against the authorised body of work immediately. It may appear on an invoice, a gallery label or an old condition report. If you have paperwork of any kind, it is worth reading before you write to anyone.
04Look at the colour against a known impression
Warhol's screenprint colours are specific and they fade. Sun damage on these is common, permanent and heavily reflected in the estimate, and it is much easier to see beside a reference image than on its own. Note where the work has hung and for how long.
05Do not trim, flatten or reframe
Sheets have been trimmed to fit frames for sixty years and a trimmed margin cannot be restored. If a work is badly mounted, leave it and say so. What looks like tidying up is usually the single most expensive thing an owner can do.
Six categories, and only one of them is a Warhol print
They do not price together, and several of them look alike framed.
- The authorised prints — a Feldman & Schellmann number
- Every print Warhol authorised has a catalogue number in Feldman and Schellmann's Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné, written as F&S followed by a figure. That number, not the image, is what identifies a sheet. If a work being offered to you cannot be placed against one, that is the first thing to resolve rather than the last.
- Portfolios, and why a complete one is not the sum of its sheets
- Marilyn, Campbell's Soup, Flowers, Mao, Endangered Species, Myths, Cowboys and Indians and the rest were issued as portfolios. A complete portfolio with its colophon and original case trades as one object and is scarcer than any single sheet in it, because most have long since been broken up and sold individually. If you have a complete set, say so before anything else.
- Signed in pencil, stamp-signed, or neither
- Some editions were signed in pencil, some carry a printed or rubber-stamped signature, and some were never signed at all because that was how the edition was issued. The absence of a pencil signature is not by itself a fault. What matters is whether the sheet is inscribed the way its own edition was, which is a question about the edition rather than about the sheet.
- Estate and Foundation stamps
- Work released after Warhol's death in 1987 frequently carries a stamp from the Estate of Andy Warhol or the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, usually with an inventory number in ink on the reverse. These are legitimate and they are catalogued, but they are a different category from a lifetime-signed impression and they are priced differently.
- Sunday B. Morning — not Warhol prints
- The single most common misunderstanding in this market. These are published from the original screens under an arrangement dating to 1970 and are usually stamped on the reverse with “fill in your own signature” or “published by Sunday B. Morning”. They are openly sold as what they are and there is nothing improper about owning one — but they are prints after Warhol, not by him, and they are worth a small fraction of an authorised impression. Photograph the reverse.
- Posters, exhibition prints and later reproductions
- Enormous in number and frequently framed to look like editions. A poster carries printed text somewhere on the sheet more often than not, has no plate mark or edition number, and is on a lighter paper. This is usually settled from a photograph of the full sheet including its margins.
Where to check an edition
Feldman and Schellmann’s catalogue raisonné is the reference for the prints, and the Andy Warhol Foundation holds the archive behind the estate material. We deliberately do not publish an edition table here: the authorised print output alone runs to hundreds of editions across twenty-five years, and a partial list assembled from secondary sources would imply a completeness we could not stand behind.
Common questions
How do I tell a real Warhol print from a Sunday B. Morning?
Usually from the reverse. Sunday B. Morning editions are typically stamped on the back with a line such as “fill in your own signature” or a publisher's mark, and they carry no Feldman & Schellmann number. They are legally published from the original screens and are sold openly as prints after Warhol, so owning one is not a problem — but they are not by him, and the difference in value is very large.
My print is not signed. Is it worthless?
No, and it may be entirely correct. Several editions were issued unsigned, and others carry a stamped rather than a pencil signature by design. The question is whether the sheet is inscribed the way its own edition was issued, which is answerable from the catalogue rather than from the sheet alone.
Who authenticates a Warhol now?
Nobody, in the formal sense. The Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board was dissolved in 2011 and the Foundation does not issue opinions. In its place the market relies on the Feldman & Schellmann catalogue for prints, on documented provenance, and on the specialist departments at the major houses. That vacuum is precisely why paperwork and ownership history carry as much weight here as they do.
Is a complete portfolio worth more than the individual prints?
Generally yes, and sometimes considerably. Most portfolios were broken up and sold sheet by sheet decades ago, so an intact set with its colophon and case is scarcer than any one print within it. If you have a complete portfolio, do not sell it a sheet at a time before someone has valued it as a set.
Does fading really matter that much?
On these editions it is one of the largest single factors. The colour is the work, the inks are not all stable, and decades on a lit wall show. Fading cannot be reversed, and a specialist will see it immediately even where an owner who has lived with the print for thirty years does not.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with the Andy Warhol Foundation, the artist’s estate, his publishers or any auction house. Nothing here is investment advice.
Send photographs of the full sheet, its margins and its reverse, and we will tell you which category you are in. What sets the value of a Warhol covers what follows from it, and selling a Warhol covers the sale itself.