The Right Way to Be a Collector

I know I sound like a broken record, but it's true. I wish I had millions of dollars to collect art and literature. If I did I would follow in the footsteps of someone who I never thought I'd look to as a model for modern art collecting.

The New York Times announced today that Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is selling a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting from his art collection that could set a new auction record for the artist. The painting entitled "(untitled) Boxer" is one of my favorites. Like the majority of Basquiat's paintings it screams of urban folk art and the 80's in New York City. Looking at it makes me think of the pre-Gulianni, rough streets and the raw energy and danger of that time in history.

Starting today Christie’s will be showing the painting in its King Street galleries in London. It will also be the cover image of the sales catalog for the New York auction on Nov. 12. While the economy is shaky right now, Ulrich doesn't expect there to be any trouble selling the work. Brett Gorvy, a co-head of Christie's postwar and contemporary art department agrees. “We’re talking about a very finite amount of material by an artist who died young,” Although Christie’s coyly states that the sales estimate can be obtained “on request,” Mr. Gorvy said it could bring $12 million to $16 million.

Art collectors in general wonder if the painting will fare as well as an untitled Basquiat canvas from 1981 — of a primitive figure with clenched teeth, his oversize hands held high in the air — that brought $14.6 million at auction last year, a record for the artist.

Ulrich has owned the painting for the last 10 years, and feels like its time to put it back out into the market so that other collectors can appreciate it. A lovely thought. This is the last piece of Basquiat's work that Ulrich owns. He has within the last five years auctioned off two other pieces by the late painter.

Hopefully, whomever next acquires the painting will hold the same altruistic mindset as Ulrich. It would be a shame for this amazing piece to dissapear into a private collection, never to be displayed in public again.