Here's an unusual piece....years ago we went to an estate sale at a richy rich house down by the ocean. The old woman who passed was an artist and had, I would guess, something like 600 pieces of art in the house. The estate company said the family wanted it all gone. But some pieces were not hers. Some were other artists but the company said all the paperwork had been destroyed in a water leak, so they'll make a great deal on everything. We were talking wow, this looks like Basquiat. The estate company person was nearby and overheard, and said yes the family called them 'Biscuits', like the food. Taking a chance, we bought 5 that looked similar to the Basquiat style. Just as we were packing them out to the car, the estate company woman came out running with a manila folder, labeled 'Basquiat'. She said she had remembered the name from the pile of water soaked boxes, and dug around for it so this was in the water ruined documents but had semi dried out. We just took it with us to look at later.
Inside were documents with Basquiat Estate letterhead and signed by Basquiat's father certifying each piece with a photograph. Apparently he inherited a large number of his son's pieces, which he had to sell off to pay the massive tax debt from the inheritance(it is truly a sordid tale). He did this for about 15years before he decided enough was enough and stopped. He died a few years later(10 years ago now), and now the estate is run by his two daughters who want nothing to do with the sales/certifications. Sadly, they will not even confirm what their father signed. We've learned the only way to confirm anything Basquiat is through confirmed provenance(verified owner to owner) but it appears from the docs these were actually bought from the Basquiat Estate in the late 90s/early2000s, and like I said the daughters want nothing to do with confirming their fathers documentation. So here we are, the real deal, and we can't prove it. For all 5 we only paid $185. This is the largest piece. Quite dramatic. Made from an old wood pallet.
What's also interesting was there were several documents for other Basquiat pieces in that folder. We never saw them ourselves at the house, so someone else has real Basquiats and doesn't know it.
