Business Card Illustrated By Jean-Michel Basquiat Was ‘Stolen,’ Claims Lawsuit
Photo 188032009 © Irvans Augustin | Dreamstime.com
A business card attributed to be the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat is at the center of a legal dispute launched by a fashion store co-owner who claims to be its rightful holder.
Sometime between 1980 to 1985, the late street artist hand-illustrated a business card for the plaintiff, Phyllis Swan, and her business partner Isaia Rankin for their clothing shop, Fertility, at the Lower East Side.
The shop was named “Fertility” where he would continue collaborating w/ artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and selling his own creations that the media deemed “controversial camp.”
— Telfar Me Please (@LoveTreonnaJ) February 24, 2021
All while continuing to dabble in basics that people could wear every day. pic.twitter.com/ckLUSu7u0X
Swan asserts that the card was stolen and she never saw it again until 2019, when a friend alerted her that it had been listed by Sotheby’s, the New York Post reports.
The seller was Rankin’s former employee Robert Page, who was described by the auction house to have “inherited this work and piece of history” after the fashion designer’s death, and that he had “kept it in his personal collection ever since.”
The sale, which took place in October 2019, coincided with the 20th anniversary of Rankin’s death. Isaia Rankin was an African-American fashion designer who found his big break in the 1980s, just as the AIDS outbreak swept the US. It was this mysterious disease that led to his death in 1989.
According to Swan’s complaint, the card was valued at at least US$75,000, and she wants the auctioneer to give it back to her. She is reportedly seeking US$500,000 in damages.
[via New York Post and TDPel Media, images via various sources]
