A-Rod to Sell Basquiat as He and J-Lo Begin Collecting as Couple

(Bloomberg) -- Retired baseball star Alex Rodriguez is parting with two paintings from his collection, which could fetch as much as 5 million pounds ($6.35 million).

The works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Richard Prince, which have adorned the athlete’s home in Florida, will be auctioned at Phillips in London on June 27. The paintings haven’t previously been sold at auction.

Rodriguez and his fiancee, entertainer Jennifer Lopez, are “committed as a couple to collect together,” said Rodriguez’s long-time adviser, art dealer Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn. “So he’s making some changes.”

Basquiat’s 1984 “Pink Elephant with Fire Engine,” depicting cartoonish images on yolk-colored background, is estimated at 3 million pounds to 4 million pounds. Prince’s “Mustang Painting” from 2014-16 of a vintage Ford vehicle has a high-end estimate of 1 million pounds.

“Alex Rodriguez has solidified his reputation as one of the greatest athletes in American history, but an important aspect of his life that is far less well-known to the public is his life as a collector of contemporary art,” Robert Manley, worldwide co-head of 20th century and contemporary art at Phillips, said in a statement.

A-Rod, as he’s known from a Major League Baseball career that spanned more than two decades, began collecting art about a decade ago. He hosted parties at his home during Art Basel Miami Beach, where a batting cage and Warhol paintings competed for attention with a sweeping view of Biscayne Bay. At one soiree in 2012, artist Damien Hirst, actors Owen Wilson and Demi Moore, and Whitney Museum of American Art curator Donna De Salvo were among the guests.

Rodriguez retired after the 2016 season with a career batting average of .295 with the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees, where he won a World Series. He hit 696 home runs, fourth all-time, and drove in 2,086 runs over a 22-year career marred by steroid use. He twice signed record-breaking MLB contracts, once with the Rangers and then the Yankees. He won three American League Most Valuable Player Awards and garnered 14 All-Star selections.

In 2003 he founded A-Rod Corp., which began as a real estate investment and development firm and has since broadened into investments in sports and wellness, media and entertainment. He’s also an Emmy Award-winning baseball analyst.

Last year, another 1984 painting by Basquiat, titled “Flexible," fetched $45 million at Phillips. Billionaire collector David Geffen said in an email Thursday that he was the buyer.

To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net;Katya Kazakina in New York at kkazakina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum, Steven Crabill

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.