A monumental 1983 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat led Sotheby’s Now and Contemporary Evening Auction as New York’s May auction week opened, selling for US$52.7 million with fees and becoming the fifth-most expensive Basquiat ever sold at auction.
Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) belongs to a small group of large-scale paintings Basquiat made in Los Angeles in 1983, while the 22-year-old artist was working in a studio provided by Larry Gagosian and seeking distance from the intensity of the New York art scene. Created at the height of his meteoric rise, it debuted that year at the influential dealer’s Los Angeles gallery and has since appeared in nearly every major exhibition of Basquiat’s work.
Estimated in excess of US$45 million and backed by an irrevocable bid, the work hammered at US$45.3 million to paddle 195, a telephone bidder represented by Lucius Elliott, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art Marquee Sales in New York.
The auction totalled US$266.8 million with fees and sold 40 of 44 lots. It followed Sotheby’s dedicated Robert Mnuchin collection sale earlier the same evening, led by Mark Rothko’s Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957) at US$85.8 million. Together, the two sales brought in US$433.1 million.
Lot 112 | Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988) | Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown), acrylic, oilstick and collage on canvas
Executed in 1983
213.4 x 213.4 cm
Provenance (Supplemented by The Value):
- Larry Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
- Kamran Diba, Paris (acquired from the above in 1983)
- Faggionato Fine Arts, London
- Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, London
- Christie's London, 13 February 2013, lot 30 (consigned by the above) (Sold: £9,337,250)
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate Upon Request (Expected to fetch in the region of US$45 million)
Hammer Price: US$45,250,000
Sold: US$52,717,500
By 1983, Jean‑Michel Basquiat was no longer just a downtown New York phenomenon. Only a few years earlier, he had been spraying cryptic SAMO© messages across Lower Manhattan; now, at 22, he had exhibited at Documenta VII in Kassel and was included in the Whitney Biennial. Money, fame, and attention arrived quickly, and suddenly he found himself at the centre of a glamorous, fast‑moving art world.
Larry Gagosian, today one of the most powerful names in the global art market but then still on the rise, first saw Basquiat’s work in 1981 at the artist’s debut show at Annina Nosei Gallery in SoHo. He did not yet know the artist’s name, but was immediately struck by the paintings and bought three at US$3,500 each. Six months later, Basquiat’s first West Coast solo exhibition opened at Gagosian’s gallery in Los Angeles.
Basquiat soon returned for extended stays between 1982 and 1984, first working from a studio inside Gagosian’s three-storey Market Street house, where he was joined for a time by his girlfriend Madonna, before later setting up in his own studio nearby. Compared with the constant pressure of New York, Los Angeles’s more laid-back atmosphere offered Basquiat some distance from the spotlight.
Larry Gagosian, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Keith Haring in New York in 1982
Eight related Basquiat paintings from 1983 debuted in Jean-Michel Basquiat: New Paintings at Larry Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles that same year
Jean-Michel Basquiat | Hollywood Africans (1983) | Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art
His output in California was prodigious, totalling around a hundred works, many now considered among his most important. In 1983, he produced a particularly significant group of twelve related large-scale canvases, eight of which later debuted at Gagosian's gallery. Among them were Hollywood Africans, now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown).
While Hollywood Africans addresses the visibility of African Americans in the entertainment industry, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) is Basquiat’s pointed response to the commercial and institutional art world into which he was thrust.
For a rising artist in his early twenties, the museum was both a dream and obsession – especially in a time when Black artists were barely visible on institutional walls. Basquiat was acutely aware of the contradictions around him. His paintings were selling for high prices, yet some institutions dismissed him as a “jumped-up wall-sprayer.” With “MUSEUM SECURITY” crossed and repeated across the surface, he questioned the systems that decide who is permitted to enter.
Close-up of the present lot
Close-up of the present lot
Close-up of the present lot
The seven-foot canvas reflects the breadth of Basquiat’s intellectual world, layering references drawn from across centuries and continents. Words of money and trade – “PRICELESS ART,” “NEW,” “YEN,” “FIVE CENTS,” “5 ¢,” “22,” “88” – sit beside terms linked to race: “BLACK,” “GRIOT,” “TAR,” “ASBESTOS.”
Elsewhere, “FBI” and “SHERIFF” invoke surveillance and law, while the repeated “ROME” points to empire, antiquity, and the roots of the Western art-historical canon.
“Hooverville” recalls the makeshift homeless settlements of the Great Depression, juxtaposed with “Papa Doc,” the moniker of Haitian dictator François Duvalier. Anchoring all of this is Basquiat’s iconic skull‑like head at the centre.
The present lot at Foundation Beyeler, Basel, in 2010
The present lot at Dongdaemum Design Plaza Museum in Seoul in 2025
The work was originally owned by architect Kamran Diba, designer of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and by Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill. It last appeared at auction in 2013, when it fetched £9.3 million (US$14.6 million) at Christie’s London.
Since its 1983 debut at Larry Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, the painting has appeared in major Basquiat exhibitions at the Fondation Beyeler and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Brant Foundation in New York, Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, and on long-term loan to the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen from 2013 to 2018.
It is due to return to public view at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, in an exhibition running from September 2027 to January 2028.
Lot 111 | Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) | Brigitte Bardot, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas | Bardot by Warhol: From the Gunter Sachs Collection
Executed in 1974
120 x 120 cm
Provenance:
- Gunter Sachs, Switzerland (commissioned directly from the artist)
- Gunnar Sachs (by descent from the above)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: US$14,000,000 - 18,000,000
Hammer Price: US$21,000,000
Sold: US$24,830,000
Another highlight of the auction was Andy Warhol’s Brigitte Bardot, offered for the first time after more than fifty years in the Gunter Sachs Collection. Chased by six bidders, it surpassed its US$14 million estimate to achieve US$24.83 million with fees.
Sachs – a German industrialist, playboy, and influential collector – first met Bardot in the mid‑1960s. In 1966, he famously hovered over her Riviera villa in a helicopter and dropped thousands of red roses into the garden before jumping down after them. Their brief, high‑profile marriage became a shorthand for European jet‑set glamour.
He later commissioned Warhol to make a group of portraits for his St. Moritz apartment, including a series devoted to Bardot. When she declined to sit, Warhol turned instead to Richard Avedon’s 1959 photograph, producing eight canvases in 1974 in different colourways. The emerald version offered at the sale set a new auction record for the series.
Brigitte Bardot and Gunter Sachs in 1966
The present work in the home of Gunter Sachs in St. Moritz
The second-highest price of the auction went to Willem de Kooning’s Untitled III (1975), which realised US$26 million with fees in its auction debut.
Painted in 1975, it belongs to the period after de Kooning had left New York City for East Hampton, where the coastal light, water, and open landscape fed into the sweeping forms of his late abstraction.
Lot 121 | Willem de Kooning (1904 - 1997) | Untitled III, oil on canvas
Executed in 1975
222.9 x 194.3 cm
Provenance:
- The Willem de Kooning Revocable Trust
- Private Collection
- Acquired from the above in January 2007 by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate: US$25,000,000 - 35,000,000
Hammer Price: US$23,500,000
Sold: US$26,000,000
Other Highlight Lots:
Lot 117 | Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968) | Concetto spaziale, Il cielo di Venezia, acrylic on canvas
Executed in 1961
150 x 150 cm
Provenance:
- Dotrémont Collection, Brussels
- Renée Lachowsky, Brussels
- Pierre Janlet, Brussels (acquired from the above in the late 1970s)
- Private Collection, Europe (acquired from the above by descent)
- Sotheby's London, 26 June 2002, lot 14 (consigned by the above)
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate: US$10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Hammer Price: US$13,700,000
Sold: US$16,492,500
Lot 119 | Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970) | Untitled, acrylic and ink on paper mounted on canvas | Collection of Jean & Terry de Gunzburg
Executed in 1969
198.8 x 148.6 cm
Provenance:
- The Pace Gallery, New York
- Shaindy Fenton, Fort Worth
- Private Collection
- Sotheby's New York, 18 November 1992, lot 40 (consigned by the above)
- Private Collection, Monaco (acquired at the above sale)
- Acquired from the above in April 2000 by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate: US$10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Hammer Price: US$15,000,000
Sold: US$16,465,000
Lot 115 | Roy Lichtenstein (1923 - 1997) | Half Face with Collar, oil, acrylic and graphite on canvas
Executed in 1963
121.9 x 121.3 cm
Provenance:
- Leo Castelli Gallery, New York [LIC #107]
- Galerie Ileana Sonnabend, Paris
- E. J. Power, London (acquired from the above in May 1964)
- Gian Enzo Sperone, Turin (acquired from the above in 1972)
- Gagosian Gallery, New York (acquired from the above in November 2008)
- Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in May 2010)
- Gagosian Gallery, New York
- Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate: US$10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Hammer Price: US$10,700,000
Sold: US$12,985,000
Lot 109 | Agnes Martin (1912 - 2004) | Untitled #10, acrylic and colored pencil on canvas
Executed in 1981
182.9 x 182.9 cm
Provenance:
- Pace Gallery, New York
- Waddington Galleries, London (acquired from the above in April 1984)
- Private Collection, New York
- Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago (acquired from the above in May 1997)
- Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco (acquired from the above in 1997)
- Sperone Westwater, New York
- Acquired from the above in April 1998 by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate: US$7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Hammer Price: US$7,200,000
Sold: US$8,904,000
Lot 107 | Helen Frankenthaler (1928 - 2011) | Cape Orange, acrylic on canvas
Executed in 1964
306.4 x 185.1 cm
Provenance:
- The artist
- Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York
- Gagosian Gallery (consigned by the above)
- Private Collection (acquired from the above)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate: US$3,500,000 - 5,000,000
Hammer Price: US$5,850,000
Sold: US$7,257,000
Lot 105 | Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) | Me, acrylic on canvas
Executed in 1999
162 x 182.9 cm
Provenance:
- Anne and Anthony d’Offay, London (acquired directly from the artist)
- Private Collection
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: US$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Hammer Price: US$5,600,000
Sold: US$6,952,000
Lot 113 | Keith Haring (1958 - 1990) | Self-Portrait, acrylic on canvas | Haring's House: Works from the Collection of Kermit Oswald
Executed in 1985
121.9 x 121.9 cm
Provenance:
- Acquired directly from the artist in 1985 by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate: US$3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Hammer Price: US$3,500,000
Sold: US$4,340,000
Lot 127 | Isamu Noguchi (1904 - 1988) | Shodo Flowing, bronze | Works from the Collection of Jannine and Robert MacDonnell
Conceived in 1959 and cast in 1988, this work is artist’s proof 2 from an edition of 6 plus 2 artist’s proofs
193 x 41.9 x 33 cm
Provenance:
- The Pace Gallery, New York
- Acquired from the above in 1988 by the present owner
Estimate: US$600,000 - 800,000
Hammer Price: US$1,900,000
Sold: US$2,432,000
Lot 104 | Elizabeth Peyton (b. 1965) | Earl's Court (Liam + Noel), oil on board
Executed in 1996
25.4 x 20.3 cm
Provenance:
- Greene Naftali, New York
- Acquired from the above in 1998 by the present owner
*Subject to Irrevocable Bids
Estimate: US$1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Hammer Price: US$1,500,000
Sold: US$1,920,000
Lot 102 | Yu Nishimura (b. 1982) | Leaves carpet, oil on canvas
Executed in 2017
182.3 x 227.7 cm
Provenance:
- KAYOKOYUKI, Tokyo
- Private Collection, Japan
- Private Collection
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: US$120,000 - 180,000
Hammer Price: US$780,000
Sold: US$998,400
Lot 103 | Joseph Yaeger (b. 1986) | The Euphemism, watercolor on gessoed canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Executed in 2021
200.5 x 140.5 cm
Provenance:
- Project Native Informant, London
- Private Collection
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: US$80,000 - 120,000
Hammer Price: US$250,000
Sold: US$320,000
Lot 101 | Ding Shilun (b. 1998) | Three Princes, oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Executed in 2022
180 x 160 cm
Provenance:
- Bernheim, Zurich
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: US$50,000 - 70,000
Hammer Price: US$280,000
Sold: US$358,400
Auction Details:
Auction House: Sotheby's New York
Sale: The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction
Date: 14 May 2026
Number of Lots: 44
Sold: 40
Unsold: 4
Sale Rate: 91%
Sal Total: US$266,861,200