Andy Warhol’s seminal portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat will be a leading highlight at Christie’s 20th Century evening sale in New York in November. It comes to market with an estimate in excess of $20 million. Warhol elevates the young Basquiat to his pantheon of cultural icons which includes Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. The work celebrates the remarkable friendship between the two artists. Thought to be the only example in private hands, this rare and deeply personal work dates from 1982. Warhol’s depiction of Basquiat stands as the only known portrait executed in oxidation form, and one of its sister paintings is housed in the permanent collection of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. This example has been in the collection of Peter Brant for nearly two decades, and has been widely exhibited, most recently at the Whitney Museum’s 2018-2019 Warhol Retrospective, Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again.