Record for American artwork

new york - A Japanese billionaire has paid the highest price ever for an American-made artwork on Thursday (local time). The Japanese internet store magnet Yusaku Maezawa, at Sotheby's auction house in New York, counted 110.5 million dollars (over 99 million euros) for a work by deceased graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The artwork does not have a name and represents a colored head of death. The New Yorker Basquiat died of an overdose in 1988 at the age of 27.

His friend and art dealer Jeffrey Deitch said he had always believed in the genius of Basquiat. 'I always thought he'd be in the same line as Picasso, Bacon and Van Gogh. His works have an iconic quality. ''

The painting was purchased for $ 19,000 in 1984 by deceased American art collectors Jerry and Emily Mirror.