In the midst of a crumbling economy and tight credit markets, a painting owned by Metallica’s Lars Ulrich has been sold at auction for $13.5 million. The painting was a highlight of Christie’s contemporary art auction in New York.
The canvas of a boxer, which is by celebrated artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, went under the hammer for $13.5 million. Christie’s says the price for “Untitled (Boxer)” exceeded the pre-auction estimate of more than $12 million.
A total of 75 contemporary works went under the hammer at the sale on Wednesday evening, but almost a third failed to attract a buyer. The auction took a total of $113.6m, half the low pre-sale estimate of $227m.
Untitled (Boxer) sold to a mysterious phone bidder. Metallica’s Lars Ulrich wanted to sell it for between $12 and $16 mil and didn’t even ask for a guarantee, the painting was “bought in 1999 for just a couple million dollars.”
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich is a noted collector of art, claiming that: “Hanging out backstage with Kid Rock is an amazing turn-on, no less so than sitting and staring at my Dubuffet for an hour with a gin and tonic.” In 2002 Metallica’s Lars Ulrich sold a painting by Basquiat aptly named “Profit I” for more than $5 million. In October, 2008, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich announced he would sell his second Basquiat, which was expected to top bidding at $12 million
The painting was the highlight of a 2005 traveling retrospective of the artist. The painting shows a black heavyweight fighter with his arms thrust in the air against a white graffiti-filled background. Basquiat died in 1988 of a drug overdose at the age of 27. In July, a Basquiat belonging to U2, which used to hang in their Dublin recording, was sold for $6.5 million. The current auction record for a Basquiat is $14.6 million for “Untitled,” which sold at Sotheby’s last year.
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