INTERNATIONAL: Auction house Christie's has announced Monday,March 21.that it will offer Andy Warhol’s 'Shot Sage Blue Marilyn' painting of Marilyn Monroe during its May Marquee Week of sales at Christie’s in New York, NY.

The painting is estimated at around $200 million.

"This work is poised to be the most expensive painting of the 20th century ever sold at auction," said Christie's Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art Alex Rotter. "Painted in 1964, this Marilyn portrait is one of the most iconic, if not the most, iconic and transcendent images of the 20th century.”

It is one of five 40 by 40 inch paintings that Warhol made of Marilyn Monroe.

Rotter has said; “Warhol has used a screening technique on the paintings, on “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,” that he never used again. It was way too complicated, way too involved.There is a reason that the 40 by 40 inch Marilyns are the most famous and are the most beautiful and are the most coveted paintings and always were, because even Warhol put more effort into these screens than he did. He was very careful about how to set the hair, how to set the face. Her lips are actually where they need to be, her eye shadow always where it needs to be. He has really paid attention to it and later said that was way too complicated, and he’s not going to do this again."

The work comes to Christie's from the Thomas and Doris Amman Foundation Zurich. All the proceeds of the sale will benefit the foundation, which is dedicated to improving the lives of children around the world.

"The sale of this single painting will constitute the highest grossing philanthropic auction since the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in 2018," said Christie's American Chairman Marc Porter.

Christie’s says the highest price paid for a Warhol was for the painting Silver Car Crash, Double Disaster, which sold for $105 million in 2014.