These days, when Basquiat’s work has become such a commodity, it feels good to be able to see a group of drawings, such as the ones the Schorrs gathered, in a setting where the din of the marketplace will be quiet for once. (The marketplace for Basquiat can also be iffy—unfinished works were strewn around his loft, all the more tempting to pick up, especially when he was out of it. A Christie’s online auction of his works owned by a former roommate, who said they were gifts, was recently postponed because of a suit by Basquiat’s sisters, arguing against their authenticity.) In the early days Basquiat’s paintings went for around $15,000–$20,000; the drawings, for something like $600. A comparison shop, now that he’s the James Dean of the art world and the art world is depressingly similar to Wall Street, can’t be exact, because the Schorrs have never sold any of his works from their collection. But last year, a Basquiat painting was knocked down at Christie’s in New York for $48,843,750 (the top price paid for the artist so far), and the Schorrs said they’d been offered more than $2 million for one of his drawings, a number of years ago. They could not afford his works if they were buying today, and even in the old days they had to be careful about what they spent. As Lenore says, “It was not about speculation—it was about love for the work.” And it shows.
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