The sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Orange Sports Figure last week in London set off a little bit of a debate over the significance of the £4.07 price. Colin Gleadell described the sale thus:

 a vibrant Orange Sports Figure by graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat that sold for £4.1 million. The price for the Basquiat wasn’t huge by 2007 standards, but for the seller, who bought it in 1992, four years after the artist’s tragic suicide, for $66,000, it was a good return.

Art Market Monitor’s twitter feed relayed the mood in the auction room with a similar sense of business as usual:

However, Josh Baer responded in an email that we’d both missed the market turning point here.

Basquiat price at Sotheby’s was very strong – stronger than anyone would have imagined

if there were murmurs it was not for “stalling ” but for running

and there will be big Basquiat works in May

Contemporary Sales: Still Some Things to Smile About (Telegraph)

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