How Johnny Depp made £4.5M fortune from selling his limited edition prints of late stars

His next artistic venture will find him directing a film about the life of the penniless Italian painter and sculptor Modigliani.

But news broke yesterday that Johnny Depp’s own career as an artist is turning out to be a lot more lucrative, after he sold more than £4.5m worth of paintings in just a few days last week.

A series of limited edition prints of reggae star Bob Marley, writer Hunter S Thompson and actors Heath Ledger and River Phoenix went on sale through the Castle Fine Art Gallery in London’s Covent Garden on Monday. past.

Yesterday, a spokesperson said the bold, brightly colored prints, which cost £4,500 each, or £17,500 for four, almost sold out in five days. “By Friday they were pretty much all gone, just a handful of River Phoenix prints left,” he said. ‘I guess they’ve already been sold too.’

It is the second exhibition of Depp’s ‘Friends and Heroes’ collection to go on sale in the UK. The first, which featured folk legend Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone Keith Richards, actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor Al Pacino, also sold out in a matter of hours last July.

Success: The star of Pirates of the Caribbean signs one of his works

It means that, in the last seven months alone, Depp has made over £8m from his art. Yesterday, the 59-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star told the Mail that he was “really touched” that people were interested in the work he was doing “outside of his day job”.

He said he was spending more time in Europe and the UK, and that he “loved” London, which he described as a “very creative environment”.

“For many years, I really limited myself strictly to the day job of the movie business, although I always had to escape to a blank sheet of paper, whether it was writing, drawing or painting a blank canvas,” he said. saying. “Tackling something for the first time with no idea of ​​what is about to start and what will result is deeply rewarding.

“For people to see these things now for the first time, to react in the way that they have, so positively, to whatever he’s done is very moving.”

It’s not the only time Depp has sought other creative outlets. In fact, he has previously said that music is his first love. He performed with his own band and with his friend, guitar legend Jeff Beck, who died in January. They released a record, called 18, together last July.

Depp described the subjects of his paintings as “legends” with Phoenix and Ledger making their mark despite not having “enough time on this earth”. The sale follows Depp’s high-profile US trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard last year.

A jury found an article he wrote about his experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse to be libelous and awarded Depp £12 million in damages.

Ms Heard later won one of three counter-suits, successfully arguing that Depp’s press agent defamed her and was awarded £1.5m in compensation.

It followed Depp’s UK libel case against the Sun newspaper in November 2020, which he lost, over an article calling him a “wife beater”. The judge said that the newspaper proved that what was written was “substantially true.”