Four artworks by Jean-Michael Basquiat, Diane Arbus, and Pablo Picasso surrendered to the US Department of Justice in connection with the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal collectively netted some $36 million in an online auction conducted by the US Marshals Service.
Jean Michel Basquiat’s Self Portrait (1982) sold for $8,332,500, while his collage Red Man One (1982) fetched $22,002,790.00. Pablo Picasso’s Tête de taureau et broc (1939), and Diane Arbus’s Child with a Toy Hand Grenade, left the block for $5,007,502 and $500,150, respectively. Gaston and Sheehan, an auction house in Pflugerville, Texas, was contracted by the US government to conduct the sale. The online only auction opened on July 16 and closed on September 4.
The offered lots were once the property of individuals implicated in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal — commonly referred to as 1MBD — in which the eponymous Malaysian sovereign wealth fund was embezzled by a global network of bankers, politicians, and high-profile institutions, including Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Najib Razak. Some $4.5 billion was diverted from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014 in what the U.S. Department of Justice dubbed in 2016 as the “largest kleptocracy case to date.”
Documents filed by the Justice Department between 2016 and 2020 detail how the artworks sold in Texas this week came into the agency’s possession. Basquiat’s Self Portrait was surrendered to the US government by Christopher Joey McFarland, who co-founded Red Granite Pictures with Riza Shahriz Bin Abdul Aziz, the stepson of Razak. According to the agency, the two used funds embezzled from 1MBD to produce the 2013 movie The Wolf of Wall Street.
Basquiat’s Red Man One, Picasso’s Tête de taureau et broc, and Arbus’s Child with a Toy Hand Grenade were reportedly acquired by Malaysian businessman and fugitive Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, the alleged mastermind of the scheme. Low bought the works between 2012 and 2014 and later gave them to Wolf of Wall Street star Leonardo DiCaprio. Authorities stated that Tête de taureau et broc was gifted to DiCaprio with a handwritten note that said “Happy belated Birthday! This gift is for you.” and signed “TKL,” Low’s initials. The actor and well-known art collector surrendered the artworks to the US government in 2017. Low is currently wanted by Interpol for his role in the scandal.
The starting bid for both Basquiat’s Self Portrait and Tête de taureau et broc on the US Marshals Art Auction was $850,000. The gelatin silver print Child with a Toy Hand Grenade by Arbus was purchased from the art and movie memorabilia company Cinema Archives for $750,000. The starting bid for Child with a Toy Hand Grenade on the US Marshals Art Auction was $4,400.
In February of 2021, Gaston and Sheehan sold two other artworks linked to the 1MDB scandal: a rare Metropolis 1927 film poster and the Andy Warhol painting Round Jackie (1964). The Warhol sold for $1.04 million, just shy of the $1.055 million Low paid for at Sotheby’s New York in November 2013.
Proceeds from federal seizures typically go to the Treasury Department, however profits from the sale of assets connected to 1MDB will be distributed among individuals harmed by the crime, a Justice Department spokesperson told NPR in 2019. The Justice Department reported last June that it had so far repatriated approximately $1.4 billion.
