A 1982 painting by deceased Haitian-Puerto Rican artist Jean-Michel Basquiat last week sold for $41.9 million at Christie’s auction house in Hong Kong, reports the New York Times.
Titled “Warrior,” the auctioned painting depicts the struggles Black men have to endure in a world dominated by White people.
Though the British auction house said the amount paid for the painting was the highest for an artwork by a Western artist in Asia, that is actually not Basquiat’s most valuable piece of work.
In 2017, his “Untitled” painting was purchased for $110 million by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa at a Sotheby’s auction in New York. Basquiat died at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose but he lives forever through his art and the impact of his work and influence on American movements and pop culture.
