Basquiat’s former NYC studio renting for $60K-a-month
Struggling artists need not apply.
The former Noho studio and digs where the late, great Jean-Michel Basquiat spent the last five years of his life is on the rental market — for a cool $60,000 a month.
Basquiat, who died in 1988, leased the funky space at 57 Great Jones Street from mentor Andy Warhol, who owned the building until 1990.
The second floor of the two-story, 6,600 square-foot space — which Basquiat used as a studio –has an “open loft space with high ceilings and multiple skylights” while the ground floor dining room features a “massive” skylight, according to Meridian Capital Group, which is listing the rental.
The listing also touts a “fully equipped restaurant space with venting & gas in place,” but notes all uses for the premises will be considered.
“We are mainly targeting artists, gallery users and food and beverage hospitality groups,” said Meridan Capital Group broker Garrett Kelly.
Basquiat leased the apartment/art studio from Warhol from 1983 to 1988.
In 2016, the Village Preservation installed a plaque marking Basquiat’s time at the Great Jones Street location, which more recently housed the exclusive referral-only Japanese restaurant, Bohemian.
The plaque reads, “Basquiat’s paintings and other work challenged established notions of high and low art, race and class, while forging a visionary language that defied characterization.”
Anything tied to Basquiat means big bucks.
His paintings routinely sell for eight figures. In 2017, Basquiat’s 1982 depiction of an enraged-looking skull, called “Untitled,” sold at Sotheby’s for $110 million following a bidding war between Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and a Las Vegas casino owner. It was the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by an American artist.
In May, two would-be art thieves tried to snatch a Basquiat painting from a Chelsea gallery.
The art star died from an accidental heroin overdose in 1988.
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