Keith Haring Foundation Auction Nets Over $4 Million USD in Total Sales

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.

Elsewhere, an art student received backlash for dumping 31 tons of carrots as part of London’s Goldsmiths College’s MFA exhibition.