Jean-Michel Basquiat

The Times ran a story yesterday, by Arts reporter Carol Vogel, on the pre-auction night jitters over at Christie's and Sotheby's following disappointing sales in the past couple of months--and that little thing over on Wall Street. Both are have their big Modern and Postwar & Contemporary sales this month. (Sotheby's is scheduled for tonight; Christie's on November 12.)

From the Times:

A $60 million painting by Kazimir Malevich. A $40 million self-portrait by Francis Bacon. It hardly seems the ideal moment to be selling such pricey art. As Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips de Pury brace for their big fall auctions in New York, starting with a sale of 71 Impressionist and Modern paintings, drawings and sculptures at Sotheby's on Monday night, anxiety is the dominant mood.

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Everyone's trying to make a little extra cash in these tough economic times. If only we were all rock stars with rare paintings on our hands!

Back in June, we told you about how U2 bassist Adam Clayton was auctioning off a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died of a drug overdose in 1988, at Sotheby's in London. Now Metallica durmmer Lars Ulrich is doing the same thing, but this time at Christie's in New York, The New York Times and other news outlets are reporting today. According to The Times: "The Basquiat, which goes on the block Nov. 12, depicts a victorious black boxer, his hands waving in the air, against a richly painted background filled with the artist’s signature graffiti scrawl.  read more »

An interesting tidbit from The New York Times: U2 is selling a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting that its bassist, Adam Clayton, bought at a New York gallery in 1989. According to Bloomberg, the band is expected to fetch as much as 6 million pounds (that’s $11.7 million) at a Sotheby’s Contemporary Art auction in London on July 1. The auction record for a Basquiat work is $14.6 million.

The painting, a 6-foot-square acrylic, oil stick and collage canvas, was completed in 1982 (some reports say 1983) when the artist was 22 years old. He died of a drug overdose in 1988.

“It seems especially appropriate that a work by Basquiat should end up in a music studio, since so much has been said about the relationship between his art and music,” Oliver Barker, of Sotheby's Contemporary Art department, told the BBC. The painting had been hanging in U2’s studio until now.

No word on whether Bono plans to do something philanthropic with the money.

Strangers, AMC Village VII, 2 p.m.

It could be a setup for some sort of awesome romantic comedy: a man and woman lock eyes on a train while both traveling to Berlin for the World Cup finals before accidentally switching backpacks. But, of course, things get more complicated, as the couple in question is an Israeli man, and the woman hails from Ramallah but has been living in Paris, trying to escape the daily terrorism that comes with life in the Palestinian territories. Brace yourself for relationship metaphor for political conflict! Directed by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv. (Watch the trailer above.)  read more »

Hannibal rising! An $8 million painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, called Hannibal, has been located in a Manhattan warehouse after apparently being smuggled out of Brazil, federal prosecutors told the Associated Press yesterday. The painting's last known owner was Edemar Cid Ferreira, the former owner of Banco Santos and one of Brazil's major art collectors. His bank went bankrupt in September 2005, and Mr. Ferreira was convicted in Brazil of money laundering and bank fraud.  read more »

Last night, Parker Posey said she had a cold.

“Can you tell?” the actress asked in an earnest tone. No, we assured her. And it was true. Considering the flight of otherwise red-faced, smooshy-coiffed guests who had just braved a blizzard to attend the New York Academy of Art’s Tribeca Ball, Ms. Posey, in her breezy Cynthia Rowley dress, appeared the ravishing exception.

Still, Ms. Posey was in clouds.  read more »