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ANDY’S BLACK PERIOD

By
Janet Whitman
Published Nov. 15, 2007, 10:00 a.m. ET

Conrad Black’s 15 minutes of fame aren’t up yet.

A portrait of the dethroned press baron painted by Andy Warhol fetched a higher-than-anticipated $240,000 at an auction at Christie’s yesterday.

The silver silkscreen was one of a series of four Warhol painted in 1981 when Black, then 37, was just starting to build his newspaper empire. It was expected to garner between $150,000 and $200,000.

Black – who could get as much as 10 years behind bars later this month after his July conviction for plundering millions from investors in his newspaper company – won’t be receiving any of the sale proceeds.

A court forced the Canadian-born media mogul turned British lord to give up two of the portraits in a legal spat with the creditors of his former holding company, Ravelston, which is selling them to pay off his debts.

Christie’s will auction off the second portrait in February in London, where Black once owned the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Black will get to keep one of the portraits, but he will have to pay Ravelston the average price of the two auctioned portraits.

He previously donated one of four portraits to the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Black, who is holed up in his Palm Beach mansion, declined to comment on whether he was among yesterday’s bidders.

The winner of the New York auction was Beverly Hills art dealer Michael Kohn, who wasn’t aware the portrait was of Black when he started bidding.

“I really just thought it was a strikingly good portrait,” Kohn told The Post. “A lot of these commissions turned out to be bland.”

Kohn said he knew whom Black was, but only “clued into his notoriety” when reporters chased after him to interview him.

Kohn said he might eventually sell the portrait, but plans to keep it in his gallery for now.

Black is due to be sentenced on Nov. 30.

But the judge in the case is holding a hearing today in Chicago, where Black’s newspaper company was headquartered, to consider his request for a short extension to allow his legal team more time to prepare objections to pre-sentence recommendations for how much time he should serve. [email protected]