Keith Haring Foundation Auction Nets Over $4 Million USD in Total Sales
Leading the sale is a collaborative 1981 installation by Haring, Basquiat, Futura and more which sold for $504,000 USD
In September 24, the Keith Haring Foundation launched a massive sale of works from the artist’s estate at Sotheby’s to support the New York LGBTQ+ organization the Center. The online auction titled “Dear Keith: Works from the Personal Collection of Keith Haring” recently concluded and netted a total of $4.6 million USD. That total amount is triple the amount of the initial pre-sale estimate of $1.4 million USD.
The sale spotlighted over 140 pieces by Haring including paintings, archival photography and other rare ephemera which costed as low as $100 USD. Lots also included items gifted to the artist by his close friends and ’80s art icons such as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf. The highest-grossing work was a collaborative installation from 1981 comprised of 19 clear plexiglass slates that were tagged with illustrations by Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Fab 5 Freddy, Futura, Rammellzee, Haze, Zephyr, Sniper, CHI-193 and Chino. The work sold for $504,000 USD, snapping up six times its pre-sale estimate of $80,000 USD.
Another key lot was Andy Warhol’s orange and green silkscreen portrait of Haring with his long-term partner Juan Dubose, which sold for $504,000 USD. Roy Lichtenstein’s American flag–inspired print Forms in Space (1985) also sold for $214,200 USD. Moreover, an untitled drawing by Basquiat that portrayed minimalist scrawls made $100,800 USD. On the back of the work is an inscription by Haring that states: “This is the drawing Jean gave me for the Xerox catalog which accompanied the first exhibition I held at Club 57.”
View the entire collection of works from the “Dear Keith” auction by visiting Sotheby’s official website.
