GUEST: My father-in-law had a great career. His whole career was with Nabisco Foods. At one point, he had moved back to the main headquarters in New Jersey, and he had a beautiful office there. And when he retired, he was invited to take all of the artwork from that office with him as a retirement gift. And this was one of the pieces that was in his office. We've had it in the family for a long time. And so we're just curious what the story is.
APPRAISER: Did he tell you why he chose this artwork? Was he a hockey fan?
GUEST: Well, he was not the hockey fan. Ross Johnson, who was the chairman who purchased this for the company, was a big hockey fan-- he was Canadian. So clearly that's all you need to know about that. (laughs) So this is Wayne Gretzky and that was the reason that he chose this piece.
APPRAISER: Of course, this is Wayne Gretzky. This is a portrait of Canadian royalty here.
GUEST: (laughing) Yeah!
APPRAISER: What's interesting is that this is of course Andy Warhol, and the title of this is "Wayne Gretzky #99," which was his number. He's the most famous hockey player in the history of the game, famous Edmonton Oiler, Hall of Famer. And what's fascinating about this print is that Warhol really didn't know anything about hockey.
GUEST: (laughs) Not surprising.
APPRAISER: My artist friends don't know anything about hockey, either. But Warhol specialized in taking celebrities, and this was really what he perfected with his screen prints, is taking celebrities and giving them this pop icon status.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And Wayne Gretzky certainly had that at this time. This print was made in 1984. In 1984, he was basically bestowed the equivalent of knighthood in Canada.
GUEST: Ah.
APPRAISER: Two years before, he'd been sportsman of the year.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: I mean, he was an amazing athlete. This is a later Warhol.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Warhol died in 1987.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So this is towards the end of his career.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: But he did these great portraits, and of course, other sports figures like Muhammad Ali...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...also had the Warhol treatment. This is a color screen print and it's done in an edition of 300. So 300 were printed, plus about 50 artist proofs. In addition to signing it himself and numbering it part of the limited edition of 300, it's also signed here by Wayne Gretzky. And it was done with the printer that Warhol worked with his entire late career, Rupert Jansen Smith, was a master screen printer. And these are thick layers of print. They have a real painterly quality. It is a popular print, comes out often.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And today, its auction value would be $7,000 to $10,000.
GUEST: Terrific! Excellent.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Great, well, thank you.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
