Basquiat painting snares millions

A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat has been sold for $13.5 million at an auction in New York City.

The 1982 painting, “Untitled (Boxer),” was consigned to Christie’s auction house by Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica. Christie’s didn’t identify the buyer.

The current auction record for a Basquiat is $14.6 million for “Untitled,” which sold at Sotheby’s last year.

But Francis Bacon’s “Study for Self-Portrait” went unclaimed at Wednesday night’s auction. It had been estimated to go for $40 million or more, but no bid approached even $30 million.

Christie’s postwar and contemporary auction took in $113.6 million, just half of the pre-sale estimate of $227 million, with 68% of the lots on offer finding buyers.