A 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, "Baby Boom," is returning to auction at Christie's 21st-century evening sale on May 14 in New York, with an estimate of $20 million to $30 million. The work, a triple portrait believed to depict the artist and his parents, has been in private hands for nearly 25 years and is being sold by major Basquiat collector Peter M. Brant. It was previously offered for $35 million in 2017 but did not sell.
The sale comes as Basquiat's auction market shows signs of cooling, with his annual sales volume falling 23% to $184.7 million in 2024 and his ranking dropping from third to fourth on Artnet's top 500 artists list. However, seven of his top 10 auction results were created in 1982, his most commercially successful year, and a comparable work sold for $46.4 million last May, suggesting strong demand for prime examples from this period.