Basquiat Painting Inspired by Leonardo to Lead Christie's New York Sale
A Jean-Michel Basquiat painting will lead Christie's 21st Century Evening Sale in New York on November 19. It will be shown in public for the first time in more than two decades, according to ArtNews.
The work is called Untitled (Leonardo and His Five Grotesque Heads). It is a bright orange canvas measuring 84 by 84 inches, about 213 by 213 centimetres. It responds to the series of grotesque heads by the Italian painter and draughtsman Leonardo da Vinci.
Christie's is the auction house that will sell it. An evening sale is the main auction of the night, and the lead lot is the piece that opens the bidding. The painting comes from a private European collection. ArtNews reports its estimate, the auction house's pre-sale price range, as in the region of US$30 million. The final price can land above or below that figure.
Basquiat's work has already sold for far more than that. In 2017, his 1982 untitled skull painting sold at Sotheby's to the Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa for US$110.5 million. At the time, that was a record for an American artist at auction, ArtNews reports.
Christie's has used the November New York season to open its big sales before. In 2022, its 20th and 21st Century evening sales kicked off the New York marquee week, the run of major auctions that draws bidders and visitors to the city. That year, Andy Warhol's 1964 Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold at Christie's New York for US$195 million, including the buyer's premium, the fee the buyer pays on top of the winning bid. It remains the most expensive work by an American artist sold at auction, ArtNews reports.
The November 19 sale is part of a wider 20th and 21st Century season at Christie's New York. Christie's event page says the sale brings together works by David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and other modern and contemporary artists. It describes the November auctions as tracing a century of art, from the early 1900s to now.
For anyone following the auction market, the sale is the next big test of prices for the post-war and contemporary season in New York. For Christie's staff, it is also a long lead-up of crating, insurance and display work that begins well before the first bid.
