The late Jean-Michel Basquiat's painting will go on display for the public.
According to art industry newsletter Baer Faxt, Citadel founder and hedge fund manager Ken Griffin has purchased a prized canvas painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat for more than US$100 million—making it one of the most expensive Basquiat pieces ever sold.
The work of art titled Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump was formerly owned by newsprint magnate Peter Brant, a major Basquiat collector, who displayed the piece at his private museum in Manhattan last year.
Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump is considered to be a monumental work for the late artist, when he was reaching the height of his talent. The simple fiery-hued canvas is considered to be a neo-expressionist “tour-de-force” outlining a boy playing with his pet dog.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, collector Ken Griffin regularly spends much of his fortune on art collecting, having acquired major works by big name artists, including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and now Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Griffin is also a member of the governing body at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and has a wing named after him at the Museum of Modern Art, also in New York. Most of his collection is set to go on public display.
“The vast majority of Ken’s art collection is on display at museums for the public to enjoy” Zia Ahmed, a Citadel spokesman, told Bloomberg in a statement. “He intends to share this piece as well.”
The collection of work by the late American artist, who focused largely on racial inequality in the United States, has significantly skyrocketed since his death, setting a new auction record in the category of a work by an American artist at Sotheby’s in 2017 when his Untitled painting sold for US$110.5 million.
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