Ken Griffin’s Basquiat at PAMM Raises Fresh Questions About Provenance and Power
A Jean-Michel Basquiat painting with a notable ownership trail is headed to Miami this summer. In Italian (1983), now in the Kenneth C. Griffin Collection, will be included in “Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols,” the Pérez Art Museum Miami exhibition opening June 25 with nearly a dozen works from Griffin’s holdings.
The painting’s history links three major names in postwar art collecting. Before entering Griffin’s collection, In Italian belonged to Peter Brant, whose Brant Foundation mounted a Basquiat survey in Manhattan’s East Village in 2019. Earlier still, the work was owned by Andy Warhol, who received it from Basquiat in a trade. A representative for Griffin confirmed the painting’s inclusion in the PAMM show; Brant’s side did not respond to a request for comment.
The exhibition is being curated by PAMM director Franklin Sirmans and Megan Kincaid, curator of the Griffin Collection. In a catalogue essay, Sirmans writes that the painting reflects Basquiat’s engagement with Italian Renaissance anatomical study as well as the scrutiny he encountered in Europe. He also suggests that the large head to the right of center may depict Stephen Torton, the Paris-based framer and former Basquiat assistant who said he sat for the portrait and worked on it with the artist for months.
Griffin, in a statement, said he was “proud to partner with PAMM” to present works by “one of America’s most iconic artists.” The collector’s Basquiat holdings have become a market story in their own right. Untitled (Skull) (1982), also in the Miami exhibition, was reportedly acquired from Yusaka Maezawa for as much as $200 million, nearly double the $110.5 million Maezawa paid at Sotheby’s in New York in 2017. It remains the auction record for a Basquiat sold on the block.
The broader market context is equally stark. Basquiat’s second-highest auction price came in 2021, when In This Case sold for $93 million at Christie’s in New York. According to Artnet data, seven Basquiat paintings have sold for more than $50 million at auction, and 82 have cleared the $10 million mark.
For Miami visitors, the exhibition offers a rare chance to see several of these works together. For collectors, it underscores how Basquiat’s market continues to be shaped by provenance, scarcity, and the gravitational pull of a few highly visible private collections.
