Hefty Bid: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 16-Feet Wide ‘Untitled’ Painting Sells for a Record $85 Million at Phillip’s Evening Sale

Works by Yayoi Kusama, Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso also went under the hammer that night.

Jean Michel Basquiat’s Untitled piece broke records at Philips’ 20th-Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York on May 18.

Philips sold the 16-feet wide canvas painting (one of Basquiat’s largest works) to a buyer in Asia through a Phillips representative in Taipei, Taiwan, for $85 million.

READ ALSO: Some Like It Hot: Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe Painting Sells For Record $195 Million

Initially, American art collector Adam Lindemann owned Untitled after purchasing it for $4.5 Million in 2004. Twelve years later, Japanese retail billionaire Yusaku Maezawa bought the work at a then-record-breaking price of $57.3 million. 

Self-portrait

Basquiat, who died in 1988 at only 27 years old due to a drug overdose, is known for his raw painting style with graffiti-like images and scrawled text. Untitled is said to be the New York native’s self-portrait from 1982 as he soared to international fame. 

Untitled (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat / Image fromPhillips.com

Today, his work remains relevant in pop culture. Last August, Tiffany & Co. released a campaign featuring “music royalty” couple Beyonce and Jay-Z posing with Basquiat’s Equals Pi (1982). 

Before Untitled, Philips’ most expensive lot sold was Andy Warhol‘s Men in Her Life painting in 2010.

In total, Philips’ 20th-Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale offered 36 lots and garnered $224.9 million, the highest sale the house has seen in a single auction. 

Other notable artworks included Yayoi Kusama’s Untitled, Yves Klein’s Monochrome bleu sans titre, Pablo Picasso’s Figures et plante, and Andy Warhol’s Flowers.

Banner photo from phillips.com

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