AFTER $110.5M
The price paid for the same painting at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Thursday.
THE BUYER
It was bought by billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, f ounder of a Japanese fashion website, and a new force in contemporary art. Maezawa purchased a separate painting by the artist last year for US$57.3 million.
QUOTE
“When I saw this painting, I was struck with so much excitement and gratitude for my love of art,” said Maezawa, who plans to display it in his museum in Chiba, Japan, after loaning it to institutions and exhibitions around the world.
THE SELLERS
Basquiat’s canvas was last purchased at auction three decades ago by the late New York collectors Jerry and Emily Spiegel. It then disappeared from the public view until the couple died in 2009 and their art trove passed on to their two feuding daughters, according to people familiar with the matter. The elder daughter, Pamela, consigned 107 works to Christie’s, which has sold about 50 lots for US$ 125 million so far this week. The younger daughter, Lise, raised almost as much by selling just one painting — the Basquiat.
THE BIDDING
The bidding for the painting started on May 18 at US$ 57 million, sparking gasps in the packed salesroom, and lasted for more than 10 minutes as three parties chased after the work. Sotheby’s had valued the work at more than US$ 60 million. The result ended up smashing Andy Warhol’s US$105.4 million auction record.
MEANWHILE…
Other billionaires bought and sold art, including casino magnate Steve Wynn, worth an estimated US$ 2.6 billion, who anonymously sold an abstract painting by Willem de Kooning at Phillips auction house, and Londonbased jeweller Laurence Graff who bought two paintings from the Spiegel collection at Christie’s totalling US$22.1 million.
THE AUCTION
The work led four days of bellwether auctions in New York where the world’s wealthiest investors and families dropped more than US$ 1.5 billion on Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art. The results surpassed the target of US$1.3 billion and the series concluded on Friday.
THE GENIUS
“I remember astounding the art world back in 1980s when I set an auction record for Basquiat at US$ 99,000,” said Jeffrey Deitch, an art dealer who was the artist’s friend and champion. “All of us, Jean- Michel’s friends, we totally believed in his genius. I always thought he would be one day in the league of Picasso, Bacon and Van Gogh. The work has that iconic quality. His appeal is real.” The Brooklyn- born Basquiat, below, died in 1988.