Own the Original Lease for Andy Warhol’s First NYC Studio | Cross River Real Estate

[159 East 87th Street photo via PropertyShark]

In the early 1960s, Andy Warhol, pop art icon and then-Upper East Side resident, was beginning to outgrow his workspace in his home on Lexington Avenue, so he did what anyone else would do: he wrote a letter to the city and asked if he could rent an old fire house on East 87th Street. The city agreed, and gave Warhol run of the space for just $150/year. It became Warhol’s first ever studio in New York City, and now the lease that Warhol signedis going to hit the auction block at part of Sotheby’s inaugural New York Sale. The faded, torn document, signed on December 10, 1962, is a one-of-a-kind artifact from Warhol’s life, and it’s expected to sell for $8,000 to $12,000—a downright steal compared to how much one could pay for a piece of Warhol’s art.

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http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/24/