124 pages 27 x 21 cm Language: French Paperback Publisher: Millon Cornette de Saint Cyr 2009
The sale that opened the house's Graffiti / Street Art department, and the first auction ever held at La Cigale — a Pigalle music hall rather than a saleroom, with a vernissage and a live painting performance the night before. It was put together with Maquis-art (David Benhamou), the expert Maurice Grinbaum, and Alexandre Millon and Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr on the rostrum. 290 works by 140 artists, running from the New York subway of the early 1970s to the European scene that followed a decade later. A second sale went to Drouot Montaigne before the year was out, this time with Alan Ket handling the American side.
The American foundations are unusually deep: Taki 183, Stayhigh 149, Tracy 168, Blade, Crash, Seen, Quik, Toxic, T-Kid, Cope2, CES, Crime 79 and Iz The Wiz, who died that same year — his big 1994 canvas Death IZ Life still carries this sale in its provenance chain, which is exactly what this catalogue is now used for. Basquiat and Haring anchor the top end, Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant document it. On the European side, Blek le Rat, Miss.Tic, Speedy Graphito, Skki, Jay One, Nasty, Colorz, Dran and a Bando the press at the time flagged as genuinely scarce.
