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Ouattara Watts: The Thirty-Year Overnight Sensation

How did an Ivoirian artist Jean-Michel Basquiat discovered in the 1980s suddenly join two of the hottest galleries and become and auction star? Of all of the surprises that took place during the May sales in New York, one big one—the sale of Ouattara Watts’ Afro Beat from 2011 for a remarkable $781,200 during Christie’s 21st Century Evening sale—has gone almost unremarked upon.
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