Neil Stein’s Son Thinks You Should Pay $1 Million for His Pope Painting

“The Prayer for Peace” by Perry Milou can be yours for just one million dollars.

It had been a while since we’d heard anything from Perry Milou, son of notorious Philadelphia restaurateur Neil Stein and Father of the Great Philadelphia Pop Art Movement That Never Was, who used to be a fixture in Rittenhouse Square and at those douchey Hair O’ the Dog parties. So we were delighted to learn that Milou has created an entire line of Pope Francis pop art.

We first heard about Milou’s pope series when contacted last week by a publicist with Peter Breslow Consulting & Public Relations, who informed us that one of his paintings was chosen as the “official” pope portrait. When we asked her what made it so, she explained that “The Prayer for Peace” (seen above) was selected by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and approved by the World Meeting of Families. Fair enough.

The 40-by-30-inch oil on linen took Milou just eight hours to complete, and though he deems it “priceless” on his website, he is selling it for $1 million, which works out to $125,000 per hour. Milou explains that he will donate $250,000 to the Mural Arts Project and $500,000 to the buyer’s charity of choice (Planned Parenthood? ACT UP? … joking, joking), netting the artist $250,000, which still comes out to an hourly rate of more than $30,000. Not bad work if he can get it.

Milou says that he created “The Prayer for Peace” after his wife nagged him, saying, “Pope Francis is coming. You call yourself a pop artist. When are you going to paint him?”

If “The Prayer for Peace” doesn’t suit your tastes or your wallet, there are plenty of other Milou-created papal souvenirs on his website including $25 t-shirts and Christmas ball ornaments, limited edition “Andy Warhol-like” Pope Francis prints, and a couple of paintings in the $25,000 to $50,000 range. Now don’t all buy at once: We wouldn’t want you to SEPTA his server.

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