Basquiat painting fetches record $110.5mn
A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat has broken several records by selling for a whopping $110.5mn. This is till date the most expensive work of art by an American artist. It is also the costliest by a black artist, and the first since 1980 to cross the $100mn mark. His second most expensive work was bought last year by the same collector.
Japanese buyer also bought Basquiat's second most expensive painting
It was a tense 10 minutes as at least four bidders on phone and in the room crossed the $60mn mark: the price guaranteed previously by a third party. Yuki Terase, who oversees Sotheby's Japanese business development, took the winning bid on phone from Yusaku Maezawa of Japan. Maezawa, who paid $57.3mn last year for another Basquiat piece, plans to open a museum someday.
Basquiat, dead at 27, painted for just seven years
Basquiat's painting is now one in 11 which went beyond $100mn, including works by Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. The native New Yorker, who died in 1988 at 27 due to a heroin overdose, had been an artist for just seven years. His 80 works have till now generated $171.5mn; his auction high has also increased by ten times in the last 15 years.
Basquiat was a member of 27 Club
Basquiat is also a member of the 27 Club: popular artists, actors and musicians who mostly died violent deaths at 27. Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones, all died at 27 during 1969-71, but the club was conceptualized after Kurt Cobain's death in 1994.