Basquiat painting sells for $14M at NYC auction

[November 13, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The drummer for Metallica has snapped up a Jean Michel-Basquiat painting for $14 million at an auction in New York City.

Christie's says the price Lars Ulrich bid for "Untitled (Boxer)" exceeded the pre-auction estimate of more than $12 million.

The 1982 painting shows a black heavyweight fighter with his arms thrust in the air against a white graffiti-filled background.

The painting was the highlight of a 2005 traveling retrospective of the artist. Basquiat died in 1988 of a drug overdose at the age of 27. The current auction record for a Basquiat is $14.6 million for "Untitled," which sold at Sotheby's last year.

Francis Bacon's "Study for Self-Portrait" didn't sell. Christie's says it had been estimated to sell for about $40 million.

[Associated Press]

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