Andy Warhol's very first New York City artist's studio is on the market for $10 million.
According to New York Curbed, the two-story property was a former firehouse on the Upper East Side, and Warhol began renting the space for only $150 a month. It was reported that Warhol decided to rent the space when his artworks became too many that his mother's house on Lexington Avenue was unable to contain them anymore.
According to Blouin Art Info, Warhol has been working in the townhouse where he lived with his mother when a friend told him about the vacant space in the nearby firehouse. He then wrote a letter to the city and offered to pay $100 a year. The place then had no heating system or running water. It was said that Warhol was at the point of his career where he decided that he did not need to make his own work anymore. In the same year, he rented the place and hired an assistant to work with him in the new studio.
At the same time, Warhol was also scouting other locations in midtown to establish the first iteration of The Factory. He was able to settle on an old former hat manufacturing space on East 47th Street. It was said that Warhol was attracted to the place because it did not appear to be a typical artist studio. Warhol designed the place by covering it with silver foils and finally opened it in 1964.
It was said that this firehouse property is where Warhol created the death and disaster series. The listing states that the space could be converted into condos or townhouse or mixed use rentals. The property is currently used as a storage space by art dealership, Wildenstein & Co.