Untitled by Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled from 1982 sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby’s in New York last night. This was an auction record for a work by an American artist. It was purchased by Yusaku Maezawa, founder of e-commerce giant Start Today and ZOZOTOWN, the virtual mall on Japan’s largest fashion e-commerce site. The painting will eventually be housed in a museum based in Mr. Maezawa’s hometown of Chiba, Japan. It was the highest ever price for an artwork created post 1980, the 2nd highest price for any contemporary artwork at auction and the sixth highest price for any artwork ever sold at auction.
“Tonight, Jean-Michel Basquiat entered the pantheon of artists whose works have commanded prices over $100 million, including Picasso, Giacometti, Bacon, and Warhol,” Grégoire Billault, Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Department in New York commented. “This extraordinary canvas from 1982 has broken so many benchmarks – a record for any American artist at auction and for a work of art created post-1980, to name just two – but those of us lucky enough to have been in its presence will only remember it’s awesome power. To think that it was created by a virtually-unknown 21-year old is humbling. We are thrilled that it was purchased by Yusaku Maezawa for his planned museum so others will have a chance to experience its magic firsthand.”
With participation from 39 countries the sale totalled $319,199,000 and was 96% sold by lot. This was the 4th Consecutive Contemporary Art evening auction at Sotheby’s worldwide with a sell-through rate of over 90%. There were artist records for Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jonas Wood, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mira Schendel, Blinky Palermo, Takeo Yamaguchi and Keith Haring.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 27, 2017)