How a Moorestown collector saved, secured a loan, and built an Andy Warhol collection worth thousands
The Moorestown, N.J., resident was captivated by a simple dollar sign screen print Warhol made in the early ‘60s, after he transitioned from commercial designs to pop-art pioneer. The small piece was going for $7,000. “Today I could never do what I did 30 years ago, when I could walk into a gallery and buy a small piece for a thousand dollars,” said McCoy, whose art finds are the subject of the recently published book, which was inspired by an exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania in 2022. “Today some of those same works are tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
A large part of the collection is ephemera, or everyday objects signed by Warhol, such as a Campbell’s soup can, a Brillo soap pads box, and a dinner roll. While it is clear the pieces are associated with a Warhol print owned by Stockholm’s Moderna Museet — famed for hosting Europe’s first major Warhol exhibit in 1968 — the 323 prints were never displayed. It was only 50 years later, when McCoy started contacting Swedish art professionals, that they were all found and reunited in his collection.
About 1965: McNight was referring to an event held at Penn’s then newly established Institute for Contemporary Arts — Warhol’s first-ever solo museum exhibit — that sealed both Warhol and the ICA’s reputations.