Who is this Biscuit guy you speak of, worth a punt?

my Fav part of the piece is were the signature just happens to be the only damage on the piece ;D

If someone was going to produce a fake, I would put nothing past them. They could create all documents and age them etc to throw you off track.

It might be worth keeping an eye on the seller to see if anything else like this pops up.

I highly doubt this is/was authentic. The description was sketchy at best and there are some key issues with it:

-How would this guy not know JMB couldn't have painted it 40-50 years (until he was presumably corrected by someone watching the auction)?

-How could he spell Basquiat's name incorrectly when it was clearly printed on the scrap of paper on the backside of the frame?

-Who would tape that bit of paper to the back with an estimate of $10-20k and feel that was adequate framing and presentation of 'provenance'?

-An authentic Basquiat of this composition and size would command substantially more than even the estimate of $10-20k as claimed on the 'Richard Lowden' tag (not an accredited gallery).

-The seller is in Brooklyn, NY... only a few stops on the tube from Christies, Sothebys, Bonhams NYC locations. How is it conceivable that he wouldn't bother having the piece checked out or consigned with any one of them?

Lastly, a piece of paper to show 'provenance' is just as easy (if not easier) to fake as a piece of art. While I am no Basquiat expert, I have seen many in person and know a collector in NY that has many pieces. I messaged her when I saw this listing come up and she said she didn't believe it was real, that JMB wouldn't have included a sig on a piece that had a crown on it... and he nearly always signed things on the verso. Unless the buyer could have the piece inspected by an expert before paying, I wouldn't be spending any money on this piece.

The signature on that 'Picasso' etching plate he sold previously is written conventionally (from left to right), and not in reverse, therefore if a print were to be taken from it then the signature would come out back to front, as well as being in the bottom left hand corner instead of the right. I very much doubt that Picasso would make such an elementary mistake. Of course, the seller might have horizontally flipped all 7 pictures of it in PhotoShop for some reason, which would explain it, but I doubt that too. Whoever faked that seriously needs to raise their game. A real amateur job.

fake or a really dumb seller.

from his transactions records, i don't think think he/she is dumb.

he didn't answer his questions fully. partial answers like those can get him off the hook. very bill clinton.

it looks too clean to be real. his line work is much more "sloppy" crayon like lines

THE FORUM HAS SPOKEN : FAKE

thanks guys I feel better now.. Im off to buy a Salvador Dali etching for 50p.

Good work photoxtc.

well hopefully someone sees this thread that bought it and figures out it's a REALLY bad fake and backs out...It will really suck if someone pays $4k for a frame and some worthless paper

Let's also remember this seller's name and point out more fake in the future...

As for the Picasso plate he sold, it's fake, but Picasso almost always signed his name from left to right on his etching plates, thus they printed back to front. There are a few instances where he engraved it backwards to print the correct way round - but not many. Oh and the Basquiat is about as fake as they come. eBay is a dumping ground for other peoples mistakes, someone poor bastard just took a hit of nearly 5 grand for that piece of crap!

For £2.50 you could have simply checked the signature here:

www.findartinfo.com/browse/signatures.asp

Bet its nowhere near - how was his surname to fit on the page?!

I've had a few Basquiats, and I think it is fake, because the writing just doesn't look like his junky scrawl!

5000 bucks is not just spunking money, it a huge dribbling money-shot splurted between the heaving breasts of "New York" (isn't she wonderful...)..wow...now I feel better...