A mural by urban artist Keith Haring that was cut from the wall of an Upper West Side community center is expected to fetch up to $5 million at auction, Bonhams auction house said.
The 85-foot work, which the late pop artist painted inside the former Grace House Catholic youth center in 1983, will go on the block as part of Bonhams’ “Post-War & Contemporary Art” auction scheduled for Nov. 13.
The work features some of Haring’s best known characters, including his “Radiant Baby” and “Barking Dog.”
“He had a can of black paint in his hand and a black, kind of a thick brush, and he just started with that radiant baby on the first floor and then he just worked his way up,” Gary Mallon, former director at Grace Center, recalled in an interview with Hypebeast.
“We followed him, and I remember saying, ‘Ooh, it’s dripping,'” Mallon said. “And he said, ‘That’s okay. It’s supposed to drip.'”
The mural contained 13 figures and filled three floors along stairways inside the Upper West Side center, which was later taken over by the Church of the Ascension and converted into an apartment building.
When the church decided to sell it, the mural was cut out of the wall and stored away in 15 separate pieces — which will be on display at Bohnam’s Madison Avenue gallery starting on Nov. 2.
Part of the mural up for auction.BonhamsHaring, who died in 1990 at age 31, emerged in the early 1980s as one of New York’s most significant urban pop artists.
The Pennsylvania native’s graffiti-inspired work included the iconic “Crack is Wack” mural on East 128th Street and FDR Drive in Harlem.
Bonham’s said his untitled Grace House mural is expected to fetch between $3 million and $5 million.



