CHRISTIE'S PRINTS SALE PAIRS WARHOL WITH KUSAMA

Christie's opened its September Prints & Multiples sale with a caption that reads like a checklist: Andy Warhol's Marilyn, Mick Jagger and Mickey, then Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, Banksy, David Hockney, M.C. Escher, Bridget Riley and Yayoi Kusama, nine names deep before the auction house even gets to a date.

The online-only sale runs September 10 through 24, spanning editions from the early 20th century to the present. Christie's already mapped out a four-stop New York art season this month, and Prints & Multiples slots in as the accessible entry point to that calendar: editions carry lower estimates than unique paintings or sculptures, letting a Warhol screenprint sit in the same online catalog as a Banksy multiple and a Kusama print without either requiring a saleroom appearance.

Warhol's pull on that catalog isn't new. A Warhol Liz sold for $31.5 million earlier this year, a unique painting rather than an edition, but it's the same name doing the same job here at a different price tier: pulling attention toward a sale that also includes Escher's optical geometry and Riley's op-art stripes, artists whose editions rarely headline a press release on their own.

Nine artists, one caption, one two-week window. Christie's isn't betting on any single name carrying Prints & Multiples. It's betting the list itself is the draw.