Jean michel basquiat sold for 16,3 million $

"Untitled" by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The painting is from 1981. Source: Phillips de Pury & Company via Bloomberg

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1981 painting of a skeletal, Christ-like figure sold for $16.3 million at Phillips de Pury’s contemporary-art auction last night, setting a record for the late Neo-expressionist painter. 
The auction house estimated a price between $8 million and $12 million for the 6-by-4-foot canvas, which was consigned by collector Robert Lehrman.  It attracted three telephone bidders but no one in the midtown Manhattan sales room where lots of seats were empty.
The painting, one of 11 in the sale guaranteed to sell, was the top lot of an auction that totaled $86.9 million, within the expected range of $75.9 million to $110.7 million.  Of the 44 lots, nine failed to sell, including pieces by Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly and Richard Prince.  “Things that are desirable and iconic sell very well,” said Simone Battisti, who recently joined the Gladstone Gallery in New York and Brussels as associate director. “Others don’t.”