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'Friends and Heroes': How Johnny Depp made $5.4M in less than a week selling limited edition portraits of late icons

A series of Johnny Depp's limited edition prints went on sale through the Castle Fine Art Gallery in London’s Covent Garden on February 27

LONDON, ENGLAND: Johnny Depp is reportedly making a fortune with his side gig as an artist -- having sold more than a whopping $5.4 million worth of paintings in just a couple of days last week. 

A series of the actor's limited edition prints -- including those of reggae legend Bob Marley, author Hunter S Thompson and fellow thespians Heath Ledger and River Phoenix -- reportedly went on sale through the Castle Fine Art Gallery in London’s Covent Garden last Monday, February 27. A spokesman revealed on Saturday, March 4, that the radiantly colored prints, going out for $5,400 a pop, were nearly sold out in just five days.

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Making a fortune 'outside of his day job'

"On Friday they had virtually all gone, there were just a handful of the River Phoenix prints left," the spokesperson told the Daily Mail. "I expect they will have sold out as well by now." According to the newspaper, this is the second exhibition in Depp’s ‘Friends and Heroes’ collection to go on sale in the UK. The first exhibition -- featuring folk star Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone's Keith Richards, actress Elizabeth Taylor, and actor Al Pacino -- also sold out within hours of going on sale last July. Depp has made nearly $10 million from his art in the past seven months alone. 

Creative pursuits

The 'Donnie Brasco' star, 59, told the Daily Mail he was "really touched" by the public interest in his work "outside of his day job." Depp gushed about how he "loved" London and said it was a "very creative environment" for his art. "For many years, I really held myself strictly to just the day job of the film business, even though I’ve always needed to escape into a blank piece of paper, whether it be writing, drawing, or painting a blank canvas," he told the newspaper. "Tackling something for the first time with no idea of what’s about to commence and what it will come out to be is deeply fulfilling. For people to actually see this stuff now for the first time, to react the way that they have, so positively, to whatever I have made is very moving," he added.

It's worth noting that Depp has pursued creative outlets in the past, once stating that music is his first love above all else. He is known to have performed with his own band and with his pal, the late guitar legend Jeff Beck, who died earlier this year. The pair released a studio album together last July titled '18'. That said, Depp described the subject of his paintings as "legends," noting how stars such as Phoenix and Ledger left an indelible mark on the world despite not having "enough time on this Earth."

This comes after Depp won his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard last year. A jury concluded Heard defamed Depp in an article she wrote about her experiences as a domestic abuse survivor, awarding the latter more than $14 million in damages. On the other hand, Heard won one of three counter-claims and was awarded $1.8 million in compensation after successfully arguing Depp's press agent defamed her. The courtroom battle followed Depp's UK libel case against The Sun newspaper in November 2020 over an article that branded him a "wife beater." The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star lost that case, with the judge ruling that the publication proved what was written to be "substantially true."