Botticelli vs Basquiat

Sandro Botticelli and Jean-Michel Basquiat will soon be honored with major sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

A painting by the Renaissance master, titled The Man of Sorrows,

will headline Sotheby’s next annual “Masters Week” sales series, taking place in January next year.

It was painted in Botticelli's later period, in the late 15th or early 16th century.

When creating this portrait of Christ resurrected, the Italian artist adopted a style steeped in Christian symbolism and spirituality.

At the time, he was greatly influenced by the fanatical Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola.

While Botticelli’s paintings are extremely rare on the market, those from his later period are even rarer.

The Man of Sorrows is no exception. During the 19th century, it belonged to a British opera singer, before being sold at auction by her granddaughter in 1963. Since then it has remained in the same private collection, leaving it momentarily for a few months in 2009 to feature in a major Botticelli retrospective at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.

Christie’s estimates that The Man of Sorrows could fetch more than $40 million (about R595 million) at auction.

Christie’s is betting on “Basquiat mania” to draw the crowds at its next Hong Kong sale – the “20th and 21st Century Art Evening Sale” in December, where Donut Revenge

goes under the hammer.

Basquiat made this large-format painting in 1982, a pivotal year, in which the artist said he “made the best paintings ever”.

These works are highly popular among collectors, who are often ready to spend astronomical sums to acquire them.

One collector paid nearly $42 million for Warrior at a Christie’s auction last March, making this Basquiat painting the most expensive Western artwork ever sold at auction in Asia.

Donut Revenge could see similar success when it goes up for auction on 1 December. It is estimated at between 140 million and 190 million Hong Kong dollars (about R268 million to R357 million).

Such sums underscore the auction house’s desire to “bring [the artist’s] legacy to Asia”, according to Elaine Holt, deputy chair and International Director, Christie’s Asia Pacific.

“Basquiat’s impact and appeal transcends time and geography,” she said. –