An art collector has reportedly purchased the Kanye West paintings featured on a 2020 episode of PBS’ Antiques Roadshow series.
The collector in question, per a recent Page Sixreport, is entrepreneur Vinoda Basnayake. According to the report, Basnayake went searching for the portfolio—which includes paintings and drawings by a teenaged West across multiple mediums—after catching the PBS feature last year.
Only a selection of the portfolio was featured on the show, with the pieces’ appearance said to have been the result of a cousin to West who received them as part of the estate of the artist’s mother Donda roughly a year after her death.
“I think what really attracted me to these pieces was the fact that a lot of people are probably not aware of how talented he is as an artist outside of his music career,” Laura Wooley, who appraised the portfolio at the time, said. “I think these pieces demonstrate an extraordinary facility as an artist and I selected this grouping because it shows the different mediums he was working in.”
At the time, the selections from the portfolio featured on the show were appraised to go for as much as $23,000 collectively, with Wooley noting these are pieces that will very likely continue to appreciate due to the “enduring legacy” of the artist. Also featured from the collection was a flyer announcing West’s first showing of his work at 17 years old.
Due to an NDA, the Page Six report explained, Basnayake hasn’t publicly disclosed how much was paid for the pieces.
News of the sale of these paintings arrives amid coverage of the paintings of Kanye’s daughter North West, who recently received an invitation from the Bob Ross Experience museum after the 7-year-old drew comparisons to the late painter.
