Phillips will offer three major paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat this spring that the auction house estimates could sell for as much as $86.5m combined, all from the collection of the late Italian anthropologist Francesco Pellizzi.
Pellizzi, who died last year, was the co-founder and editor of Res, Anthropology and Aesthetics, a journal published by the Peabody Museum at Harvard University and Chicago University Press. Pellizzi was a renowned art collector and acquired the three Basquiat paintings consigned to Phillips in the early 1980s. The May sales in New York and Hong Kong will mark the first time they are offered publicly, according to Phillips.
The group is led by Untitled (ELMAR) (1982), a nearly 8ft wide canvas from what is considered to be Basquiat’s most artistically successful year. The painting shows a “fallen angel” figure with a crown of thorns on the left, flanked by an archer releasing two arrows. Phillips estimates the painting will sell for between $40m and $60m in New York during the auction house’s 20th century and contemporary art evening sale on 14 May.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ballplayer), 1981 Courtesy Phillips
Also on offer during that sale will be Basquiat’s Untitled (Portrait of a Famous Ballplayer) (1981), with a $6.5m to $8.5m estimate. Along with numerous baseball references, the painting explores Black identity and inclusion in American culture, according to Phillips.
In addition to the lots bound for New York, the auction house will offer a third Basquiat canvas from Pellizzi’s collection in Hong Kong on 31 May. Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari (1982) features a Black figure with raised arms who appears to be confronting a poacher dressed in clothing from a colonial era. The text Basquiat included on the canvas references colonialism, capitalism and imperialism. Phillips estimates the painting will sell for between $12m and $18m, noting in a press release that the Asian market is particularly enthusiastic about Basquiat’s work.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Natives, Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, 1982 Courtesy Phillips
The three Basquiat paintings will be on display at Phillips New York from 8 April to 14 April, followed by a stop in Los Angeles from 23-25 April before the sales. So far, Untitled (ELMAR) (1982) with its $40m to $60m estimate is the most valuable lot to be announced by any auction house for their May sales in New York. Earlier this week, Christie’s announced it would sell a painting by Claude Monet it expects to sell for up to $25m. Sotheby’s said last week it would offer a portrait by Francis Bacon of his lover George Dyer expected to bring as much as $50m. Sotheby’s will also sell a painting from Basquiat’s notorious collaboration with Andy Warhol, with an estimate in the region of $18m.