Later this month, in a Sotheby’s modern and contemporary sale in London, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 triptych Portrait of the artist as an abandoned young man it will go up for auction for the second time in three years.
The seven-foot-wide work appears to have significantly diminished in value. When Christie’s put the work up for auction in 2022, that house gave it an estimate of $30 million; just before the sale, the work was quietly withdrawn. This time, Sotheby’s gave the work an estimate of between 15 and 20 million dollars.
Any Basquiat that comes to auction is considered an event, largely due to the phenomenally high prices his work typically fetches. Although recent secondary market prices are still high, Basquiats used to more regularly exceed their high estimates by large quantities at auction. The decline in prices could be explained by collectors being more thoughtful about how many millions they are willing to spend at auction, and auction houses adjusting estimates to better accommodate those new and heightened buying habits.
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In May, that of Basquiat Untitled (ELMAR), also from 1982, led a modern and contemporary art sale at Philips, which sold for $46.5 million. That painting is estimated to sell for $60 million. The other two Basquiats sold by the house in sales that month…Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ball Player)of 1981, and Native carrying some weapons, bibles, Amorites on safari (1982)—went to auction at lower values, selling for $7.8 million and $12.6 million, respectively. Those figures, which include all of the buyer’s premium, were fully within the works’ estimates.
Christie’s and Sotheby’s also had Basquiats for sale in May. An untitled 1984 collaboration between Basquiat and Andy Warhol went to Sotheby’s with an estimate of $15 million to $20 million. It sold for $19.3 million. Meanwhile, another job from 1982The Italian version of Popeye has no pork in his diet, sold at Christie’s for $32 million with an estimate of about $30 million.
Earlier this year, Phillips Americas president Jean-Paul Engelen said PuckMarion Maneker says that Basquiat was “the new Picasso”, a euphemism for the fact that the artist has already achieved legend status in the market. According to Maneker, the Basquiat work was sold in May for about $125 million. Look back at the last four years, and that number crosses the billion dollar mark.
There’s no doubt that the Basquiat market is hot right now, a trend that will likely continue. The only question is whether Sotheby’s has priced the work low enough to get collectors interested. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. The work, according to Sotheby’s website, has a guarantee and an irrevocable offer, meaning it has effectively already been sold. The question, now, is who takes it home.
