Warhol’s $9 Million Blondie, Hirst’s Rock Gift Boost Sales

Andy Warhol’s portrait of Blondie singer Debbie Harry, and Damien Hirst spot paintings owned by Eurythmics star Dave Stewart, were today added to this month’s auction test of the contemporary-art market’s recovery.

The fruits of the rockers’ friendships with artists, to be offered by Sotheby’s in London on June 29, may fetch as much as $11.3 million. Harry, quoted in an e-mailed release by the New York-based auction house, said her portrait -- estimated at as much as $9 million -- came about after she met Warhol on Broadway in the late 1970s and they got to know each other.