Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1983 painting *Onion Gum*, priced at $21.5 million, was one of the most expensive works for sale at the 23rd edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. The large square canvas, featuring a white head and handwritten text, has a long market history: it sold for $7.36 million at Sotheby's in 2012 to hedge fund manager Daniel Sundheim, then failed to meet its estimate at auction in 2016, fetching $6.6 million. Since 2017, Van de Weghe Gallery has used the work as collateral for bank loans, showing it at multiple Art Basel fairs with prices rising from $16.5 million in 2018 to the current $21.5 million.
The article matters because it illustrates the complex financial life of a major Basquiat painting—moving between private sales, auction, gallery inventory, and bank collateral—amid a cooling market for the artist. While Basquiat's annual auction revenue peaked at $439.6 million in 2021, it fell 57% to $184.7 million in 2024, though he remains among the top 10 artists at auction. The story highlights how blue-chip works are used as financial instruments and how pricing persists even when auction results soften.