Untitled (Skull)

Jean-Michel Basquiat painted the monumental skull in 1982 when he was just 21 years old. The 72 by 68-inch canvas presents a fractured head rendered in black brushstrokes with red, yellow, and white rivulets against a vivid blue background. A three-pronged crown, Basquiat's signature motif, hovers in the upper corner amid illegible typography.

The skull references Basquiat's Haitian heritage, where such imagery evokes voodoo rituals and mortality. But it also functions as self-portraiture, exploring the artist's experience as a Black man navigating a predominantly white art world. The fractured form suggests inner turmoil, the pressures of sudden fame and the addiction struggles that would claim his life at 27.

The painting sold for just $4,000 in 1982 and changed hands at Christie's in 1984 for $19,000. It remained hidden from public view until May 2017, when it appeared at Sotheby's and sold to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for $110.5 million, a record for any American artist. Maezawa plans to display it in a contemporary art museum in his hometown of Chiba, Japan.