Alice Cooper forgot he had an Andy Warhol masterpiece in storage. Now he's selling it

Alice Cooper kept an Andy Warhol painting in storage for decades after he forgot he had it. Now the rock star is putting the artwork up for auction to give someone who truly values it a chance to own it.

Titled “Little Electric Chair,” the Warhol silkscreen on canvas will be available to purchase through the Larsen Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. The auction will take place Oct. 23.

Managing director Scott Larsen told The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the piece is estimated at $2.5 million to $4.5 million. Cooper was gifted the painting in 1972 by his former girlfriend and model Cindy Lang who bought it for $2,500.

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'I was never a Warhol collector'

Though the painting is a bright red image of an electric chair reminiscent of the chair Cooper used to shock audiences as part of his stage show, he would rather it be sold to someone who wants it.

“I never was a Warhol collector. I collect other artists but I never really collected Andy Warhol so I'm sure there's somebody out there that is a Warhol fan,” said Cooper who frequented New York nightclubs with Warhol in the early 1970s.

“Not that I didn't like Andy it’s just, if you're going to collect Andy Warhols, you better be a billionaire,” Cooper said.

“When I collect, I like to collect a lot of pieces so I'm not going to get any more Warhols. Somebody is probably looking for this electric chair and I have it.”

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Cooper and Warhol's history

While Warhol was well known for his pop art images, Cooper gained fame as a rock star known for his shocking stage shows. The two crossed paths while both were living in New York.

“(Warhol) was very indescribable. He really saw art in everything and he took constant Polaroid pictures of everybody,” Cooper said.

“When I lived in New York I used to run into him all the time at some of the clubs at night. All the people around him were very strange, that Warhol crowd was different than anybody I’d ever met so I never really got into the Warhol crowd, but I liked Andy a lot.”

Shortly after Cooper was gifted the Warhol he parted ways with Lang. And between tours and other life events he eventually forgot he had the painting until about 30 years later when his mom found it in her garage.

Warhol painted a series of images of 'death and disaster'

Cooper’s “Little Electric Chair” Warhol is one of more than 100 paintings of the same image from the artist's "Death and Disaster" series. It features a single chair in the middle of a dungeon-like room with only a single sign in the top left corner that says “silence.”

Each painting is a different color, ranging from Cooper’s bright red to pastel blue, pinks and yellow. Some are multiple colors. The highest price paid for a “Little Electric Chair” is $11.6 million at Christie’s in 2015 for a green version dated 1964.

The image is distorted in some, but what seemingly sets Cooper's painting apart is the clarity of the “silence” sign hanging above the chair. In most paintings the sign is illegible.

According to Christie’s, the source of the image was a 1953 press photograph of the electric chair also known as ‘Old Sparky’ at Sing Sing State Penitentiary in New York. A few months after the image was taken, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a couple convicted of selling secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed by electrocution there.

Authenticating Warhol's work can be tricky

Like many Warhol pieces, Cooper’s painting is unsigned and it has not been verified by the Andy Warhol Foundation. That organization stopped authenticating Warhol’s work in 2011.

Richard Polsky, a private dealer and longtime Warhol fan who has written two books about the artist, has served as an independent authenticator of Warhol’s work in several cases. Polsky told USA TODAY in 2017 that he believes the painting is authentic.

Larsen is even more certain.

“I have no doubt that it’s authentic,” Larsen told The Republic.

Notable Warhol collector Peter Brandt owns 12 “Little Electric Chair” paintings. In 2016 the painting was offered to Brant but, according to Polsky, Brant did not buy the painting. Jose and Mary Mugrabi have one of the largest collections of Warhol works with more than 800 pieces.

Cooper said he could have sold the panting through any gallery but, with the pandemic, he chose to sell the piece through a gallery close to home in Arizona.

"I don't want it to go that far away, maybe I'll get visitation rights," Cooper said.

"I could take it to London but I don't want to do all that. I live in Phoenix, it's part of Arizona and has been here longer than anyplace else in the garage. Finally, it's out there where people can see it. Good, let it be seen."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Alice Cooper to sell Andy Warhol painting he forgot he had in storage