Phillips Auction: Basquiat Paintings Worth $70M, Accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum Payments

Phillips' Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art in May will feature Basquiat's 1982 piece "Untitled", which is estimated to fetch $70 million. Phillips announced that the auction will accept bitcoin or ethereum for the artwork.

Phillips will accept Bitcoin and Ethereum in exchange for Jean-Michel Basquiat's Art Auction

On May 18, Yusaku Maezawa, a well-known art collector, and Phillips, a 225-year-old auctionhouse will host an art auction featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat's work. This American artist has become a popular figure in the neoexpressionist movement. He is often compared to Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter who founded the Cubist art movement.

Basquiat's 16-foot-wide " Untitled 1982" painting will be the featured art at the Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art. According to Phillips, the "Untitled 1982", which stands eight feet tall and more than 16 feet in width, is estimated to have a value of approximately $70 million.

Phillips announced that "this striking horizontal format is likely to be a nod Pablo Picasso's masterwork, 'Guernica'." Yusaku Maezawa, the consignor of Untitled, said that he hoped that Untitled would continue its amazing journey and bring smiles to many people around the globe.

Further details are provided in the announcement that the auction house will allow buyers to buy Basquiat artwork using cryptocurrencies. Phillips was pleased to announce that the auction house will accept cryptocurrency, in either bitcoin or ethereum.

Phillips Takes Crypto Acceptance to Banksy Auction. Phillips also hosts Valentine's Day NFT Sales

Phillips isn't the first to have dabbled with crypto solutions and non-fungible technology (NFT) technology. Phillips announced last year that was auctioning a famous piece of art called the "Laugh Now Panel", which was created anonymously by Banksy.

Banksy's "Laugh Now Panel" auction marked the first time that artwork was sold for cryptocurrency payments in a physical art auction. Sotheby's announced that it would use Coinbase to sell Banksy's image "Love is in the Air". This announcement was made the same week Phillips Banksy's auction announcement.

Phillips hosted a Valentine's Day 2022 online auction, "My Kawaii Valentine Online Auction," where the first auction-data-generative NFT was created by a virtual person. Phillips explained that Drowning In Love was one of the NFTs included in the sale. It is the first NFT to be created using real-time auction data by Monoc.

Phillips announced that the Basquiat art would embark on an international tour in preparation for the Basquiat auction. Phillips said this: The artwork will then be sold at Phillips' New York headquarters, located at 432 Park Avenue.