266: Billionaire Collections - a podcast by Linda P. Jones

Learn why a billionaire paid a record $110.5 million for a painting.

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The article is posted on my website at www.lindapjones.com at podcast 266.

You might not know I’m an art collector. I have a passion for art. There are about 70 paintings in my collection. When my husband was alive we loved to go to art auctions.

I’ve not ever been to an auction at Christie’s, but I’d love to and it’s on my bucket list.

Yesterday something exciting happened at a Christie’s auction. A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for $110.5 million!

Only 10 other canvases have ever sold for over $100 million. It was bought by the 41-year-old tech tycoon, rock musician, fashion entrepreneur Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. The Los Angeles Times says that until shortly before Thursday's auction, it hadn't been shown in public since a private collector bought it for $19,000 in 1984.

Says the NY Times: “It was Mr. Maezawa, the 41-year-old founder of Contemporary Art Foundation, who last year set the previous auction high for Basquiat, paying $57.3 million for the artist’s large 1982 painting of a horned devil at Christie’s. Mr. Maezawa is also the founder of Japan’s large online fashion mall, Zozotown.”

How’s that for compounding! His works have had an increase of 10 fold in 10 years.

Basquiat’s skull painting set several records: for a work by any American artist, for a work by an African-American artist and as the first art created since 1980 to sell for over $100 million.

Untitled 1982 painting of a skull. Basquiat painted it at age 21. It has not been seen in public for 30 years.

According to the NY TImes, “The Brooklyn-born Basquiat went from graffiti artist to an art collector darling in the span of a mere seven years. He died at 27 of a drug overdose in 1988. Last year, Basquiat became the highest-grossing American artist at auction, generating $171.5 million from 80 works, according to Artprice, and his auction high has increased at least tenfold in the last 15 years.”

Why would someone pay this much for a painting?

1. Because they love the work!
2. They are a collector.
3. The rarity of the work.
4. His prices have been escalating.
5. Art has been appreciating better than other assets.
6. Diversification of your fortune, especially out of cash.
7. You can afford it. ;)

According to the Guardian the other works of art that sold for over $100 million are:

The $100m artists club: paintings that have fetched more than $100m at auction

1. $179.4m. Pablo Picasso “Les Femmes d’Alger” (Version 0). 2015.
2. $170.4m. Amedeo Modigliani “Nu Couche”. 2015.
3. $142m. Francis Bacon Triptych “Three Studies of Lucian Freud”. 2013.
4. $119.9m. Edvard Munch “The Scream”. 2012.
5. $110.5m. Jean-Michel Basquiat “Untitled”. 2017.
6. $106.5m. Pablo Picasso “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust”. 2010.
7. $104.5m Andy Warhol “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster). 2013.
8. $104m. Pablo Picasso “Garçon à la Pipe”. 2004.

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