Jean-Michel Basquiat — 50 Cent Piece For Sale

50 Cent Piece

50 Cent Piece is a screenprint released by the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat in 2019, based on a painting Basquiat completed in 1982–83. The composition centers on a portrait of Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican-born Black nationalist leader and political activist whose image was once used on Jamaican currency, including a fifty-cent coin — the direct source of the print's title.

Around the Garvey portrait, Basquiat layers references to banking and industrialization, fragments of text invoking economics and colonial history, and his characteristic combination of crossed-out words, anatomical notation, and diagrammatic forms. The effect is closer to a visual ledger than a conventional portrait — Garvey's image functioning as an anchor point within a wider field of references to Black leadership, migration, and self-determination across the Atlantic world. The print's dense, encyclopedic composition places it among Basquiat's more intellectually ambitious works on the theme of economic and racial power.

Published in an edition of 60 plus 20 artist's proofs on BFK Rives paper, each print is signed and stamped by Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, the artist's sisters and Estate administrators. As one of the more text-heavy, historically layered prints in the Estate's posthumous catalogue, 50 Cent Piece continues to attract serious collector interest, particularly among buyers drawn to Basquiat's engagement with Black history, colonialism, and the politics of value.

Guy Hepner represents authenticated 50 Cent Piece prints for sale, backed by full Estate documentation and provenance. Collectors interested in acquiring this print, or in selling an existing impression, are invited to contact our New York gallery for current pricing and availability.