Siberian Tiger, from Endangered Species (F. & S. II.297)

A conversation about a beach

The Endangered Species portfolio began with talk, not a sketch. Ronald and Frayda Feldman, New York art dealers who worked closely with Andy Warhol, discussed ecological issues with him, beach erosion among them. Warhol owned beachfront property on Long Island and undeveloped land in Colorado. The Feldmans commissioned a portfolio about threatened animals, and in 1983 Warhol produced ten screenprints, a decade after the Endangered Species Act of 1973 became law.

The ten subjects are the African elephant, Pine Barrens tree frog, giant panda, bald eagle, Siberian tiger, San Francisco silverspot butterfly, orangutan, Grevy's zebra, black rhinoceros and bighorn ram. They carry consecutive numbers in the Feldman and Schellmann catalogue raisonne of Warhol's prints, II.293 through II.302. The Siberian Tiger is II.297.

The prints are based on photographs by wildlife photographers, which Warhol enlarged and printed in loud, unnatural color. He called the works 'animals in makeup.' He gave the threatened species the treatment he had given film stars, and the logic was the same: a star is impossible to ignore.

Warhol, the Feldmans and the printer

Warhol was born Andrew Warhola Jr. in Pittsburgh on August 6, 1928, and died in New York City on February 22, 1987. Animals ran through his life long before 1983. As a boy he drew animals in science class at Holmes School and sketched in Schenley Park and Phipps Conservatory; in college he went to the zoo in Highland Park to draw. His later work includes the Cow and Fish wallpapers and hundreds of paintings, prints and drawings of flowers.

Ronald Feldman, born in the Bronx on April 25, 1938, was a corporate lawyer who did not enjoy the law. In 1963 he married Frayda Futterman, and with her help he opened a gallery in New York in November 1971. The couple were longtime friends of Warhol, who often stopped in and asked whether they had any ideas for him. Warhol made a silkscreen portrait of Ronald Feldman in 1974.

In the 1980s the Feldmans partnered with Warhol on five projects of prints and paintings: Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, Myths, Endangered Species, Ads and Moonwalk. Ronald Feldman retired in 2019 and died on December 20, 2022, in Chappaqua, New York.

The prints were made by Rupert Jasen Smith, the New York printer whose blindstamp appears on impressions of the portfolio. Warhol stayed with the subject after 1983: in 1986 he published Vanishing Animals, a book pairing his illustrations with text by the scientist Kurt Benirschke about the plight of endangered animals.

What the print looks like and how to identify it

The tiger's face fills the square in close-up against a deep green ground. Its coat is built from orange, red and yellow, and green and pale blue drawn lines carve its features, set slightly off the color blocks. The eyes are a bright, piercing blue. One catalogue, describing the painted version, called the Siberian Tiger perhaps the most adventurous image of the series in its color.

Each impression is a screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board, a full sheet of about 38 by 38 inches (96.5 by 96.5 cm); one artist's proof was measured at 37 3/4 inches square. The standard edition is 150 impressions, signed in pencil and numbered, with 30 artist's proofs. Dealer listings add printer's proofs, extra proofs, hors commerce impressions, ten impressions numbered in Roman numerals, a bon a tirer and trial proofs. They disagree on the number of trial proofs: one gives 30, another 40.

Edition impressions carry the publisher's inkstamp on the back, and catalogued examples also show the printer's blindstamp of Rupert Jasen Smith. Impressions that have appeared at auction range from numbered copies such as 58/150 and 86/150 to artist's proof AP 5/30 and trial proof TP 19/30.

There are also unique proofs outside the published edition, printed in different color combinations. Two that sold at auction were described as unique screenprints on slightly larger sheets, 39 3/4 and 39 1/4 inches square. One carries a 'Working Material' stamp of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, the other a board stamp marking it as outside the published edition. A buyer should know which kind of impression is on offer: numbered edition, proof or unique variant.

1983, and a tiger in trouble

Warhol made the series in the year Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, the final episode of M*A*S*H set a viewing record and Michael Jackson's Thriller video first aired. Environmental politics were in the news as well: in March 1983 the head of the Environmental Protection Agency resigned amid scandal.

The Siberian, or Amur, tiger lives in Northeast China and the Russian Far East. Its wild numbers stayed small long after 1983. In 2005 there were an estimated 331 to 393 adult and subadult tigers in the region, and a 2015 census counted 480 to 540 in the Russian Far East, a figure a more detailed count later put at 562 wild tigers in Russia.

A photograph dated April 1983 shows Warhol at the Factory in front of paintings from the series, and the portfolio was exhibited that year at the Museum of Natural History. Warhol also painted the animals as unique canvases. A 60-by-60-inch Siberian Tiger in acrylic and silkscreen ink, signed and dated '83, passed from the Feldmans' gallery to a private collection in Minneapolis.

From $56,250 to $403,200

One market tracker dates the print's auction history to May 2000 and counts 12 sales since. The public results show how much the kind of impression matters.

Numbered edition impressions brought $56,250 in April 2010 (number 58/150, against an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000) and $62,500 in May 2013 (number 86/150, estimated at $25,000 to $35,000). A unique proof apart from the edition brought $68,500 in October 2011, and another unique proof outside the edition sold for $81,250 in February 2019 against a $40,000 to $60,000 estimate.

The highest price found for the image is $403,200, paid at auction in New York on April 21, 2022, for trial proof TP 19/30, which had been estimated at $100,000 to $150,000. In April 2024 artist's proof AP 5/30 was offered in New York at an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000, and an online sale that closed in October 2024 offered a Siberian Tiger at an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000.

The unique canvas has its own path. It sold at auction in New York on November 17, 1999, passed through a New York collection and a dealer to a collector in 2000, hung in a 2014 New York gallery exhibition of the whole series and was offered at auction in November 2022 with an estimate of $2 million to $3 million.

A Pop print that outlived its moment

Complete portfolios are in public collections. The National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming, holds one and showed the series in 2017. The Grand Rapids Art Museum holds a complete set, a gift of Jim and Mary Nelson in memory of Robert Kellogg Goodwillie.

Warhol's concern for land outlived him. In 1992 the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts gave his 15-acre oceanfront parcel in Montauk to The Nature Conservancy, which keeps it as the Andy Warhol Preserve.

The animals have fared unevenly. The bald eagle recovered and came off the endangered species list in 2007, but by one museum's 2026 count seven of the ten species in the portfolio remain endangered or protected. That is part of why the series, and the tiger in particular, still reads as current rather than as a 1980s period piece.

The numbers

Medium

Screenprint in colors on Lenox Museum Board

Dimensions

38 x 38 in. (96.5 x 96.5 cm), full sheet; unique proofs on slightly larger sheets

Catalogue raisonne

Feldman & Schellmann II.297 (Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonne, 4th ed., 2003)

Edition

150, signed and numbered in pencil, plus 30 artist's proofs and further proofs

Printer

Rupert Jasen Smith, New York

Public collections

Complete portfolios at the National Museum of Wildlife Art (Jackson, Wyoming) and the Grand Rapids Art Museum

Ownership

Edition impressions are held by many private owners; there is no single owner

Timeline

1. Aug 6, 1928

   Andrew Warhola Jr. is born in Pittsburgh.

2. 1963

   Ronald Feldman marries Frayda Futterman.

3. Nov 1971

   The Feldmans open their New York gallery.

4. 1973

   The Endangered Species Act becomes law.

5. 1974

   Warhol makes a silkscreen portrait of Ronald Feldman.

6. 1980

   Warhol and the Feldmans produce Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century.

7. 1983

   Warhol makes the Endangered Species portfolio, including Siberian Tiger (II.297), printed by Rupert Jasen Smith.

8. Apr 1983

   Warhol is photographed at the Factory in front of paintings from the series.

9. 1986

   Warhol publishes Vanishing Animals with the scientist Kurt Benirschke.

10. Feb 22, 1987

    Warhol dies in New York City.

11. 1992

    The Warhol Foundation gives his Montauk oceanfront land to The Nature Conservancy.

12. Nov 17, 1999

    The unique Siberian Tiger painting sells at auction in New York.

13. May 2000

    The print's tracked auction history begins.

14. Apr 27, 2010

    Edition impression 58/150 sells at auction for $56,250.

15. Oct 26, 2011

    A unique proof apart from the edition sells at auction for $68,500.

16. May 1, 2013

    Edition impression 86/150 sells at auction for $62,500.

17. May 17, 2017

    The National Museum of Wildlife Art opens an exhibition of the full portfolio.

18. Feb 17, 2019

    A unique proof outside the edition sells at auction for $81,250.

19. Apr 21, 2022

    Trial proof TP 19/30 sells at auction in New York for $403,200.

20. Dec 20, 2022

    Ronald Feldman dies in Chappaqua, New York.

The world in 1983

• Jan 19, 1983

  Apple releases the Lisa personal computer.

• Feb 28, 1983

  The final episode of M*A*S*H becomes the most-watched broadcast in American history.

• Mar 9, 1983

  Anne Burford resigns as head of the Environmental Protection Agency amid scandal.

• Mar 23, 1983

  President Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed 'Star Wars.'

• Jun 18, 1983

  Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

• Aug 30, 1983

  Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American astronaut in space.

• Oct 23, 1983

  Truck bombs destroy the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen.

• Dec 2, 1983

  Michael Jackson's Thriller video airs for the first time.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Siberian Tiger, from Endangered Species (F. & S. II.297) is number 33 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (31 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Warhol called the Endangered Species prints 'animals in makeup.'
• The portfolio grew out of a conversation about beach erosion; Warhol owned oceanfront land in Montauk.
• Warhol's Montauk land is now the Andy Warhol Preserve, given to The Nature Conservancy in 1992.
• A trial proof of the Siberian Tiger sold for $403,200 in 2022, about seven times what a numbered impression brought in 2010.
• Warhol also painted a unique 60-by-60-inch Siberian Tiger canvas, separate from the print edition.
• Ronald Feldman, who commissioned the series, was himself the subject of a 1974 Warhol silkscreen portrait.
• The bald eagle from the same portfolio came off the endangered species list in 2007.