“Warrior”, a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat that symbolized the struggles of black men in a white-dominated world, sold for $ 41.9 million, with fees, at Christie’s auction house in Hong Kong on Tuesday -market.
Although Christie’s said it was the highest price paid at an auction for a Western work of art in Asia, this may be a technicality: in a 2017 sale of Sotheby’s in New York, Japanese billionaire collector Yusaku Maezawa paid US $ 110 million for Basquiat’s “Untitled” album. It remains the record for the artist’s auction.
Estimated at $ 31 million to $ 41 million, “Warrior” was offered as an unusual single lot. He leads a week of live auctions from the 20th and 21st centuries at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London and Paris, which also include an old master and a rediscovered Van Gogh. Christie’s was betting on Basquiat’s global appeal to help energize the art market as it tried to emerge from the crisis of the pandemic year.
Annual art sales fell 22 percent to $ 50 billion in 2020 compared to 2019, with public auction proceeds decreasing 30 percent to $ 17.6 billion, according to a recent UBS report and Art Basel. The supply of major works of art remains tight, with few emergency sales or large properties on the horizon in the short term. Selling prices are astronomical, making it difficult to close deals, dealers and auction executives said.
The result of “Guerreiro”, with three bidders vying for the work, illustrates why the artist is a key figure in the art market alongside Picasso and Warhol. It also shows why these rugged ones are unlikely to be easily dethroned by the headline-grabbing NFT invasion, led by the $ 69.3 million sale of a work by digital artist Beeple at Christie’s earlier this month.
Both Beeple and Basquiat “have a place,” said Alberto Mugrabi, the collector and dealer, whose father paid $ 250,000 for “Warrior” in the mid-1990s. “Both are in a category of few artists. Beeple will bring a new audience to the art world and it is an encouraging sight to see. “
Although the outcome of Beeple’s work was unpredictable – bids started at $ 100 – Basquiat was a relatively safe bet for Christie’s, which hoped to attract new people from Asia to the market. (The winning offer came from Christie’s Hong Kong representative.) The company guaranteed the seller an undisclosed minimum price and received an irrevocable offer from a third-party sponsor, guaranteeing the sale of the work.
“Basquiat is one of the strongest markets that has emerged from the pandemic,” said Christophe van de Weghe, a Basquiats trader. “It is worldwide. You can sell Basquiat, like Picasso, to someone in India, Kazakhstan or Mexico. You can have a 28-year-old guy spending millions in Basquiat and you can have an 85-year-old guy. He attracts all kinds of people, from rappers to hedge fund guys. ”
Born in Brooklyn, of Haitian and Puerto Rican ancestry, Basquiat explored issues of race and inequality in a style inspired by graffiti, reaching the height of the contemporary art world from a modest start in street art. He dated Madonna, collaborated with Warhol and became a legend after he died at the age of 27 in 1988.
“Warrior” depicts a figure with fiery eyes and a sword raised against blue and yellow spots. It was painted on a nearly two-meter-high wooden panel with oil, acrylic and spray paint in 1982. It went up for auction four times, including Tuesday’s sale. Sotheby’s last appearance was in 2012, raising $ 8.7 million. At the time, it was bought by real estate market magnate Aby Rosen.
Christie’s declined to confirm that Rosen was the seller of “Warrior”, but its background indicates that the current owner purchased the work in 2012. Rosen offered the work for sale privately last year, according to a dealer with knowledge of first hand of the sale. Rosen did not return emails asking for comment.
Basquiat’s 1982 painting, “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump,” was among the best-known transactions of 2020. Purchased by billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin for more than $ 100 million, it hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago .
Although Basquiat was very prolific, the supply of works is limited: around 900 paintings and 3,400 works on paper. In contrast, Beeple’s record “Every day – the first 5000 days,”He understood the 5,000 works that the artist created over 13 and a half years.
Alex Rotter, Christie’s president of 20th and 21st century art, recently had a chance to realize the scope of Basquiat’s appeal while watching Brooklyn Nets’ winning game in the team’s arena on February 25. Basquiat’s signature crown was on the floor.
“I thought, ‘Wow! How cool is that! ‘”Said Rotter this week, recalling the game when the Nets defeated the Orlando Magic. “Basquiat is everywhere.”