Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who spent 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS) in December, is to put a famous Basquiat painting up for sale for $70 million, hoping to pocket a $13 million capital gain.
Read alsoThe Orlando Museum of Art accused of exhibiting fake Basquiats
In a statement released Monday in New York, auction house Phillips announced that an
Untitled
artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1982 will be sold on May 18 for an estimated price of around $70 million.
This would allow Yusaku Maezawa to make a nice profit on this gigantic painting he bought in 2016 for $57.3 million.
The following year, he broke a record by buying another work by Basquiat for $110.5 million.
46-year-old Yusaku Maezawa is the founder of Zozotown, Japan's largest online clothing and accessories store.
Quoted in Phillips' statement, the billionaire explained that the six years of owning the painting he wants to sell has been "
a great pleasure
", but that the art must "
be shared to be part of everyone's life
" .
.
Prior to its auction, Basquiat's painting will tour internationally and be exhibited in London, Los Angeles and Taipei, the statement said.
Yusaku Maezawa made headlines in December when he became the first Japanese space tourist to board the ISS with the Russian space agency.
Read alsoJapanese billionaire Maezawa next space tourist on board the ISS
His odyssey is said to have cost around 10 billion yen ($87 million).
Yusaku Maezawa plans to follow up with a trip around the Moon organized by Elon Musk's SpaceX company.
Also owning works by Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, Yusaku Maezawa says he is an “
ordinary collector
” of contemporary art who works “
by instinct
”.
“
I just buy what I find beautiful.
That's all
," he told AFP in 2017.