Sotheby's will auction a rediscovered early Jean-Michel Basquiat painting from 1981, unseen for 36 years, with a $10–15 million estimate at its Contemporary Evening Auction in New York this May. The sale also features major works from three tightly held private collections: the estate of Barbara Gladstone, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and Daniella Luxembourg's 'Im Spazio' group, alongside top lots by Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Ed Ruscha. The Modern Evening Auction includes a Pablo Picasso musketeer portrait and a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, with combined estimates for both sales reaching up to $525.2 million.
This auction season arrives amid a cooling high-end art market, where global sales dropped 12% in 2023 and consignments have become harder to secure. Sotheby's is betting that fresh-to-market works—especially prime Basquiat from his coveted 1981–83 period—will attract attention and drive sales, despite lower overall volume. The results will serve as a key indicator of whether top-tier contemporary and modern art can sustain demand in a cautious market.