Basquiat painting inspires U2

Bloomberg art reporter Scott Reyburn writes that the Irish rock band U2 may get up to 6 million pounds ($11.7 million) from the sale of a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat which has been hanging in its Dublin studio for nearly two decades, said Sotheby’s. “Untitled (Pecho/Oreja),” featuring Basquiat’s trademark primitive mask motif, is expected to fetch at least 4 million pounds in the London sale on July 1, the auction house said in an e-mailed statement. The 6-foot-square acrylic, oil stick and collage canvas dates from 1982, when the artist was 22 years old, said Sotheby’s. The band jointly acquired the painting in 1989 after bassist Adam Clayton saw it at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York. Read more.