Jasper Johns' 'Flag' fetches $28.6M at NYC auction

NEW YORK - Jasper Johns' seminal work "Flag" from the collection of the late best-selling author Michael Crichton sold for $28.6 million at a New York City auction Tuesday, an auction record for the artist.

Christie's said the work was purchased by an American art dealer during high-spirited bidding Tuesday night by phone and in the room. There were four bidders for the work, which took two minutes to sell, Christie's said.

The previous Johns' auction record was $17.4 million for "Figure 4," in 2007.

"This fabulous painting is a tribute to the great collector Michael Crichton who showed us all how to enjoy and collect art for future generations," Brett Gorvy, international co-head of post war and contemporary art at Christie's, said in an e-mail.

"Flag" was the crown jewel of Crichton's collection.

The popular writer of such blockbuster thrillers as "Jurassic Park," ''The Andromeda Strain" and the TV series "ER" died in 2008. He was a passionate art collector, leaving a 20th century art trove of some of pop art's best known artists, including Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Jeff Koons and Pablo Picasso, among others.

The sale featured 31 pieces, which sold for $93.3 million. Another 117 works from the collection will be sold Wednesday as part of Christie's post war and contemporary art sale.

Christie's catalog called "Flag" ''one of the greatest icons of modern art alongside Picasso's 'Guernica' and Andy Warhol's 'Marilyn.'"

A 1960 encaustic and paper collage rendition of the stars and stripes, Crichton bought it from Johns in 1973 and hung it in his Beverly Hills bedroom.