American artist ERNIE BARNES’ painting, The Sugar Shack, danced off as the biggest surprise of Christie’s 20th Century mid-May auction, selling for $15.3 million, or 76 times its high estimate of $200,000.
Although the painting, a celebration of the joy found in losing oneself in dance, sold well past its pre-auction estimate, Bill Perkins, 53, who purchased the 1976 painting, told The New York Times, “I stole it – I would have paid a lot more. For certain segments of America, it’s more famous than the Mona Lisa.”
The sale of the painting, which was featured on the cover of Marvin Gay’s album, “I Want You,” and during the closing credits of the 1970s TV sitcom “Good Times,” reflects a heightened interest in work by Black artists.
Last November, Barnes’…