A decade after his death in 1988, Basquiat’s work has garnered increasing interest from collectors. Basquiat’s paintings were high in demand even when he was alive. In fact, one of his paintings from 1982 fetched $19,000. Basquiat’s most expensive painting, “Untitled (Boxer),” set the record for the highest price paid for an American artist’s work at auction when it fetched $48,405,000 at Christie’s New York on May 14, 2016.

Basquiat’s artwork achieved new heights in the 1980s. The artist created his most iconic pieces during this period and he was becoming increasingly popular in the art-scene. Basquiat’s artwork received a lot of attention, both in terms of media and money. In 1988, Basquiat’s painting titled “Dustheads” was sold for $19,000 at the Sotheby’s auction in New York. During 1989, a piece titled “Untitled (Boxer),” also went under the hammer at Sotheby’s and fetched $25,000. But all eyes were on Basquiat when his work titled “Untitled (History of the Black People)” was sold for $19,000 at Christie’s auction in 1990.

Basquiat continued to paint until his death on August 12th, 1988.

In the 90s Basquiat was still a relatively unknown artist. But he was becoming popular enough to be invited to some of the most prestigious art galleries in New York City. There he met Andy Warhol, another well known artist, who became his greatest supporter. Warhol promoted him and helped him rise above his competition.

Towards the end of the decade Basquiat was able to sell his works for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 1988, it cost $110,000 to buy one of his paintings. It really didn’t matter what it depicted or how big it was; all that mattered was that it was done by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Basquiat’s star began to fade as soon as the 90s came to an end. His works were no longer selling for hundreds of thousands and soon were not even worth tens of thousands of dollars anymore. Today one of his pieces can be bought for a maximum price of $50,000, but that is only if it is exceptionally large or contains some special message within its lines or colors.”

The auctioneer’s gavel came down. The crowd was hushed. And then, a cheer.

The anonymous buyer of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Untitled,” the final work of the greatest American artist of his generation, had just made art history. Until that night in May, no one had ever paid more than $3 million for a Basquiat painting. The new record: $110.5 million—more than triple the old one.

A painting by Basquiat could have been a smart investment even before it shattered records at Christie’s on Thursday night. But buying this particular piece is especially shrewd, because it’s not only valuable but also extremely rare.

A.R.T Posted by Art Market Monitor on Tuesday, May 14th, 2010

The auction market for Jean-Michel Basquiat is still hot and active, despite the fact that prices have dropped in recent months due to the financial crisis.

Basquiat’s all time record was set in May, when “Air Power” (1982) sold for $12 million through Christie’s in New York.

The following week, Sotheby’s London set another new record of $8.9 million for a single Basquiat painting, “Untitled” (1983).

But this week we’re seeing a piece by the American artist breaking records once again, though not at auction: “Untitled” (1982) sold privately this week by Los Angeles based collector Adam Lindemann to an anonymous buyer. The price? A whopping $11.5 million!

Locally, the most expensive Basquiat paintings sold at auction were “Untitled” (1981) which sold for $7.2 million through Christie’s Hong Kong and “Untitled” (1983), which went for $6.5 million at Christie’s New York in November 2008.

The most expensive Basquiat works currently available at auction are now both held by Phillips de Pury

Painting styles that passed from artist to artist were developed and revised over time, but the most influential styles of all were created in a moment of originality: Picasso and Cubism, Pollock and Abstract Expressionism, Dali and Surrealism.

The works of Jean-Michel Basquiat have been auctioned for as much as $110 million (over $110.5 million in 2017), making him the most expensive American artist by a wide margin. He was the first living African American artist to have a solo show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and was among the first wave of pop artists. Basquiat was also a graffiti artist whose work is now featured in prominent collections such as the Brooklyn Museum.

Basquiat’s paintings are characterized by broad fields of opaque color that give way to passages of scrawled black line…