Christie’s announces that a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting will go for the gold on May 15th:

Painted with a combustive palette, Dustheads becomes an intuitive, gestural whirlwind made during the pinnacle of the artist’s practice. With an estimate of $25-35 million, Dustheads will likely break Basquiat’s record of $26.4 million, which was just achieved last November in New York. […]

An acknowledged masterpiece from a pivotal year in the artist’s career, this 1982 painting demonstrates Basquiat’s unique ability to combine raw, unabashed expressive emotion whilst displaying a draughtmanship that was unrivalled in modern painting. Housed in the same private collection for almost 20 years,Dustheads was included in the seminal exhibition of the artist’s work organized by the Fondation Beyeler, Basel in 2010 (and which later travelled to the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris) and is widely referenced in the artist’s monographs, including the cover of the catalogue to the 2006 Basquiat retrospective organized by the Fondazione La Triennale di Milano.

Josh Baer reminds us that he broke the news of this sale three months ago:

The Basquiat market seems to be continuing on its upwards trajectory. We hear that Christie’s will auction “Dustheads” from the collection of Tiqui Atencio in May with a guarantee of around $30 million. Other paintings have had offers even higher turned down. Now that the Nahmads seem to be in this market (bidding, guarantees maybe, see above) the momentum seems to strong .