#Ken Griffin pays $100M for Basquiat painting amid race protests

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“Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump” by Jean-Michel Basquiat
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Hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin has shelled out more than $100 million for a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, the late black artist whose works focused on race and inequality.

The CEO of Citadel — who last year paid $240 million for a Central Park penthouse —bought the brilliantly colored 1982 masterwork “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump” from New York socialite Peter Brant, sources confirmed.

The timing of the nine-figure deal might look awkward as race protests continue to grip the US, but art experts said a deal of this size was was likely in the works well before the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police late last month.

And while Griffin’s big Basquiat buy could prove to be opportunistic despite its stratospheric price tag, sources said Brant — one of Basquiat’s key patrons in the 80s — was surely turning a tidy profit.

“If Peter Brant is selling a Basquiat privately, he is likely making a 100-percent profit,” one art insider said.

Griffin’s big buy comes as most art galleries remain shuttered by the pandemic and large purchases have been stymied by an uncertain economic forecast. While price tags on major art works are typically uncorrelated to financial crises, the volume of sales can suffer considerably, said Scott Lynn, founder and CEO of art investment platform Masterworks.

Indeed, pieces that would usually stay in private collections can suddenly appear on the market during a crisis as collectors look to capitalize on a prized asset, Lynn added.

The 73-year-old Brant is Griffin’s neighbor in Palm Beach, Florida. In addition to his own famous collection, Brant founded Interview Magazine with Andy Warhol. In May 2019, Brant’s nonprofit foundation opened its East Village space with an exhibition of Basquiat’s works, many of which were personally owned by Brant himself.

Griffin — a 51-year-old, Chicago-based financier worth an estimated $15 billion — paid $19 million for a new wing at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. In 2015, he donated $40 million to the Museum of Modern Art. He also caused a stir in the art world last year when he resigned in protest, and then almost immediately rejoined, the board at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In addition to big spurges on major works by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Griffin has scooped up works by female and minority artists including Lee Krasner, Isa Genzken, Mark Bradford, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Virgil Abloh.

“The vast majority of Ken’s art collection is on display at museums for the public to enjoy,” said Citadel spokesperson Megan Ingersoll. “He intends to share this piece as well.”