Basquiat painting sells for more than R1.4bn at Sotheby’s auction
New York — A little-seen painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat that sold for $19,000 in 1984 soared to an astounding $110.5m at Sotheby’s on Thursday, the second-highest price to date for a work of contemporary art. Basquiat’s vibrant, untitled 1982 portrait achieved the sixth-highest price for any work of art at an auction, bearing testament to the eagerness of deep-pocketed collectors to spend freely on trophy pieces. It also set records for an American artist, as well as for the artist himself, who died in 1987. The canvas was bought by entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, founder of e-commerce giant Start Today, after a protracted, old-school bidding war that included four participants beyond the $60m pre-sale estimate. Maezawa said he intends to lend the work for public exhibitions before housing it in his own museum in his native Chiba, Japan. Sustained whoops and cheers that harked back to the tenor of the post-2010 art market boom, which was marked by spiking prices and new records, brok...
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