The record price paid for a Basquiat at auction came in 2017 when another painting of a skull sold to the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for $110.5 million.
As for last night, Bloomberg provides the play-by-play...
As the lot opened up to a salesroom populated exclusively by cameras and auction house specialists, Gemma Sudlow, a senior vice president at Christie's who was leading the auction, opened bidding at $40 million, and quickly brought its price to $52 million.And...
Soon, six bidders began to vie for the work, slowly pushing its price in increments ranging from $1 million to $3 million. After about six minutes of bidding, the nearly 6.5 foot-high (2 meters) painting hammered at $81 million. Auction house fees payable by the buyer added on another $12 million.And...
The painting was last purchased publicly in 2002, when it sold at Sotheby’s for just under $1 million. It then sold privately in 2007 for an undisclosed sum. The seller on Tuesday night, according to reports, was former Valentino chairman Giancarlo Giammetti; the buyer was not immediately known.Basquiat died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at his home-studio at 57 Great Jones St. between the Bowery and Lafayette. He was 27.
Image via Christie's
that's nothing - I just made half a billion trading evgrievecoin
ReplyDeleteI have to say, with regard to the whole East Village scene, 1988 was the right time to die. By 1990 the beautiful golden coach changed back into a pumpkin, and all the magic was gone.
ReplyDeleteSince 2002... That's an annual 4.8 million increase... Can I borrow someones time machine?
ReplyDeleteWhen you're smoking weed all day and then decide to do a speedball and pick up the brushes.
ReplyDeleteI remember when $100 million was a lot of money. There was a time you could buy the Beatles' songbook for less than that.
ReplyDelete