Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting “Sabado por la Noche,” or “Saturday Night,” will be the centerpiece of Christie’s evening sale in Hong Kong on March 28, 2025.
Basquiat’s striking hot pink and maroon artwork, created in 1984 and measuring 6.5 feet by 7.5 feet, is estimated to sell for between $13 million and $16 million, according to a March 13, 2025 news release.
“It is a privilege to present Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night), an iconic masterpiece that reverberates with Basquiat’s inimitable visual language,” said Ada Tsui, Christie’s Asia Pacific head of evening sales and 20th/21st-century art.
“Sabado” was created when Basquiat collaborated closely with Andy Warhol on over 150 paintings, ARTnews reported.
The painting is filled with Basquiat’s signature motifs and imagery, featuring two of his “Griot” figures and depictions of animals, simplified female nudes, spirals, doubled gyres, references to the solar system, and the Fibonacci golden ratio.
Tsui said the auction house has been “cultivating the Asian market for Basquiat for years,” an effort that dates back to 2021 when Christie’s Hong Kong set a record for a Western art sale in Asia with Basquiat’s “Warrior” (1982), which sold for $41.8 million.
As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Basquiat was a Haitian-Puerto Rican social commentator, graffiti artist, and multimedia painter who died from a heroin overdose at the age of 27. Since his passing, the value and significance of his artwork have steadily increased.
At the time of its sale, “Warrior” commanded the highest price ever paid for a Western artist’s work in Asia — a record that stands today.
However, “Warrior” is not Basquiat’s most valuable piece, as that distinction belongs to “Untitled,” which was sold for $110 million to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa at a Sotheby’s auction in 2017, AFROTECH™ noted.
“His powerful work transcends borders and speaks to collectors all over the world, and this sale in Hong Kong is a testament to the demand we see in the region for Western masterpieces of this caliber,” Tsui said in Thursday’s news release. “We encourage our clients and audiences to come and experience the passionate pulse of Basquiat’s Saturday Night in person.”
