Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Crowns (Peso Neto) (1981) will headline Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale in New York this fall with a high estimate of $45 million. The painting has never been sold at auction before.
It’s the highest estimate slapped on a work made in 1981 by the late American artist. The house said in a statement that the year “marked Basquiat’s rise.”
“1981 was a pivotal year that launched Basquiat onto the international stage, the work sees the artist develop and concretize the lexicon of symbols that would define his life and work, from tallies to halos to crowns,” Sotheby’s said. “The raw canvas elements speak to a critical moment in which Basquiat transitions from the street to the studio, on the dawn of explosive stardom.”
Lucius Elliott, head of contemporary marquee auctions at Sotheby’s New York, told ARTnews that Crowns (Peso Neto) “captures the moment when Basquiat announced himself to the world.”
“He painted this at just 21 years old, and it marks the turning point between his life as a street artist and his emergence onto the international art scene,” he said. “It showcases the birth of his visual language, where everything comes together: the crown, the raw energy, the dialogue between power, race, and art history. It’s both a self-portrait and a statement of intent—a declaration of who he was and what he stood for. Few works encapsulate his legacy so completely.”
The painting was first unveiled at Basquiat’s landmark solo show at at Annina Nosei Gallery in March 1982, and the following summer at Documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany. Crowns (Peso Neto) will be exhibited to the public at Sotheby’s London from October 9 to 16 (during Frieze Week) before it travels to Paris, where it will be shown from October 20 to 24 (coinciding with Art Basel Paris). The work will land in New York ahead of the opening of Sotheby’s new HQ, the Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue, on November 8. It was last on public view at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2018.
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Basquiat is also headlining Phillip’s modern and contemporary evening auction on October 16 in London with his 1982 work on paper, Untitled (Pestus). It carries a £3 million ($4 million) high estimate.
The highest auction price for a Basquiat artwork is $110.5 million for his 1982 painting Untitled, sold at Sotheby’s in 2017 to Japanese collector Yusaku Maezawa.