Basquiat Painting Worth $45 Million Coming to Sotheby’s: ‘Legendary Masterpiece’

A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in May with an estimate of “more than $45 million,” making it expected to be one of the artist’s most expensive works ever sold, the auction house announced on Monday.

The title of this painting is Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) Dating back to 1983, it was last auctioned in 2013 when it was exhibited at Christie’s London. It was purchased by an unnamed buyer for $14.6 million; now the painting’s value appears to have tripled.

Between 2013 and 2018, the painting was on long-term loan to the Fondation Beyeler Museum in Renne, Switzerland, which is renowned for its high-quality surveys of blue-chip artists. Then, in 2019, it appeared in a Basquiat exhibition at a private New York museum owned by collector Peter Brant, which is known to hold many of Basquiat’s important works.

It is unclear whether Brandt is the seller of the work, as Sotheby’s did not name the person or entity that commissioned the painting. However, Brandt appears to have sold at least one piece of Basquiat from his collection on at least one occasion recently. 2024, art news According to reports, Brandt was the seller of an untitled 1982 portrait of Basquiat that sold at Christie’s for just under $23 million.

Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) During Basquiat’s short career, his fame continued to rise. It appeared in a 1983 show in Los Angeles by dealer Larry Gagosian, which also included hollywood africansthis painting is in the collection of the Whitney Museum and is one of the few Basquiat works in an American institutional collection. Gagosian exhibition Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) And again in Los Angeles in 2024.

Like many of Basquiat’s other works, this seven-foot-tall Museum security Combining scrawled text and graffiti-like images to comment on power dynamics, money flows and racism. It hinted at the possibility of economic free fall through phrases like “Hooverville,” a reference to the shanty town built during the Great Depression, and commented on the art market through phrases like “priceless art.”

Grégoire Billault, Sotheby’s chairman of contemporary art, said in a statement that the work is “a legendary masterpiece” and that the painting “was completed at the peak of (Basquiat’s) career and is impressive in scale and imbued with imagery and language that make his work instantly recognizable.” (The “height” is controversial because Basquiat’s career lasted another five years after he painted it. Museum securityalthough Billault may be referring to the fact that Basquiat’s painting, created in 1982 (the year before the work was completed), is considered very valuable on the secondary market. )

If the work lives up to its estimate, it will almost certainly rank among the most expensive Basquiats ever sold at auction. The artist’s previous record was $110.5 million in 2017.

The painting was also one of the most expensive works of art sold at a New York auction in May, which is typically one of the bellwethers of the U.S. and international art markets.

Last week came news of two major sales: $130 million worth of art from the collection of the late art dealer Robert Munchin, including a Rothko painting estimated at $70 million, which is also heading to Sotheby’s; and $450 million worth of art from the SI Newhouse collection to be sold at Christie’s. Newhouse’s consignment includes a painting by Jackson Pollock and a sculpture by Constantin Brancusi, each selling for $100 million.