Results tagged “michelbasquiat”

Recently, legend became reality when a 10-story building in SoHo was being converted to a luxury condo. Unearthed in the walls was a large mural created by graffiti pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Futura 2000.The artwork contains a variety of images and writing executed in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker and whatever else was on hand — in silver, gold, pink and red. There are cartoonlike pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a...

One would think that dropping some serious cash at a high end auction house would be a safe bet. Today it's being reported that an art dealer in Chelsea did just that and ended up with a counterfeit piece! Christie's is now being faced with a $7 million lawsuit that charges them with knowingly selling the art dealer a fake Jean-Michel Basquiat painting. Page Six reports:

Tony Shafrazi, who was Basquiat's primary dealer, says he bought the 1982 untitled piece from Christie's in 1990 for $242,000, and resold it a year later to collector Guido Orsi.

Continue reading "Christie's and the Bogus Basquiat"

Welcome to 2006! What's coming up in events around the city...sex, drugs, and rock & roll. And also some art and design (all downtown, of course). Some things never change, even with the passing of a year.

If the electic orange exterior of Great Jones Cafe doesn't reel you in, their reputed cajun-inspired menu featuring seafood jambalaya, shrimp po-boys, and cajun-fried oysters -- ought to. Rumored to be a former hangout of street-kid and graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, these days Great Jones Cafe caters less to starving artists and more to local East and West Villagers in search of a stellar juke box and one of the best burgers in town. Weekend brunch is also a hit where you can't go wrong with jalepeno corn bread and notoriously good bloody mary's.

A missing 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting en route to an exhibit in Europe was reported missing from a JFK International Airport hangar two weeks ago. Police were able to figure out that Albert Porcelli, a truck driver, stole the painting since a surveillance tape caught the crime and the fact that his presence at the warehouse was confirmed because he had to leave a copy of his driver's license there. Porcelli was not a sophisticated art thief, since he didn't try to unload the painting on the black market immediately; he just let it sit, still in its box labeled "painting," in the back of a warehouse in Elizabeth, NJ. Porcelli's landlord thinks that he was trying to get back at some coworkers. His boss told the media, "To me he's a complete idiot. Why would you give someone your driver's license with all your information and then go and do something like this?" Um, because he's a dumbass?