Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of the world’s most valuable artists. Why?
Thanks to a handful of money men, the neo-expressionist – who died in 1988 – has been transformed from New York scenester into blue-chip investment.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (left) with Andy Warhol at New York’s Area Nightclub in 1984. Both were prolific artists, which has helped their prices in the secondary market. Getty
In September, Gaston & Sheehan, a tiny auctioneer in Pflugerville, Texas, sold Red Man One, a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, for $US22,002,790 (about $34.1 million), after 456 rounds of bidding from 13 different bidders, all of which were in multimillion-dollar territory.
The price marked a 519 per cent increase from May 2009, when the painting was sold at Sotheby’s for $US3,554,500, and a 139 per cent increase from March 2013, when the Helly Nahmad gallery in Manhattan sold it for $US9,191,040 to Jho Low, who was shopping for a present for his pal Leonardo DiCaprio.
