"warrior" By Jean-michel Basquiat Breaks Price Record For Western Art Sold In Asia At $41.7 Million | Celebrity Net Worth 2026

Biography & Early Wealth Journey

The sale price is quite a spike compared to the previous sale history of "Warrior," which reportedly went for $1.5 million in 2005 and then $5.6 million about two years later, both at Christie's auctions.

LEON NEAL/AFP/GettyImages

"Warrior" was painted during Basquiat's most productive and creatively fertile period, as Cristian Albu explained in a statement to the Art Newspaper:

Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts

"This—1981-1982—is the best period for Basquiat, undoubtedly. If you look at the top ten records, nine out of ten are from 1981 to 1982. The energy of his work was at its peak. And it is rare to have a large one like this…If you look at 'La Hara' which we sold for $34.9 million in New York in 2017, it was from the same period, of the same dimensions, it had the same rawness about it, the same reality about what was happening in New York in 1981-1982. So, historically this work is very important."

Despite its geographical realities, the sale happened under the auspices of Christie's Hong Kong as part of a conscious effort to break price records in the region, and if art collectors in Asia continue to show more interest in western art the record may not stand for too long before being broken.