Japanese e-commerce billionaire Yusaku Maezawa sold one of his Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings for $85 million including fees at Phillips auction house in New York on Tuesday, as the market for the late New York artist’s paintings continues to surge decades after his sudden death at age 27.
An artwork measuring eight feet tall and over 16 feet wide, one of the largest works created by Basquiat, is unveiled at Phillips auction house, London, before it goes up for auction with an estimated value of $70 million.
KEY FACTS
Standing at nearly eight feet tall and more than 16 feet wide, the untitled painting is among Basquiat’s most monumental works and was completed in 1982, a turning point in the artist’s career and a year during which he completed some of his best-known works.
Maezawa purchased the painting in 2016 for $57 million, which was the most expensive artwork by Basquiat to ever sell at auction at the time.
Maezawa broke his own record just a year later when bought another 1982 Basquiat painting for $110.5 million (it was also the most expensive work by an American artist to sell at auction until last week, when Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe was snapped up by art dealer Larry Gagosian for $195 million).
TANGENT
Basquiat died in 1988, but his work has exploded in popularity over the past year: He was one of the best-selling artists at auction last year, and his work sold for more than $400 million collectively. Basquiat’s art often explored his identity as a Black man living in the U.S. and the issues that affected him. One of his paintings depicts Michael Stewart, a Black artist who was allegedly beaten to death in 1983 by New York transit police officers for spray painting graffiti in a subway station. The Black Lives Matter movement has pushed the art world and wealthy collectors to re-examine the work of artists of colour, including Basquiat. Basquiat and his work have also been introduced to a younger generation thanks to the collaborations his estate–which is run by his sisters–has built with major brands including Coach and Dr. Martens. One of his paintings was heavily featured in a Tiffany jewellery advertisement starring Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who has collected Basquiat’s work for years. Basquiat’s estate opened a major show in New York last month that was curated by his family and featured nearly 200 works, most of which had never been seen by the public.
CONTRA
Basquiat’s work isn’t necessarily a sure bet at auction. Last week, a rare triptych and sculpture by Basquiat were mysteriously pulled from sale at the last minute by Christie’s, which said both the seller and the auction house believed the market was not ready.
BIG NUMBER
$1.7 billion. That’s how much Maezawa is worth, according to Forbes’ real-time wealth tracker.
KEY BACKGROUND
Maezawa made his fortune through Zozotown, Japan's largest online fashion mall, which he founded in 1998. In 2019, he sold parent company Zozo to Yahoo Japan for $3.7 billion and stepped down as CEO to make more time for space travel, he said. Maezawa made headlines last year when he paid his way to the International Space Station, joining a growing number of billionaires setting their sights on private space ventures. In 2018, Maezawa bought the first ticket on a flight around the moon with fellow billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, slated for 2023.
