DiCaprio’s Basquiat Is at $3 Million Discount in 1MDB Auction

Leonardo DiCaprio and Jho Low with Basquiat’s Red Man One (1982) that DiCaprio later turned over to the government.

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September 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM UTC

For sale: a Picasso still life, two works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a print of a Diane Arbus photograph that musician Graham Nash linked with his anti-war anthem Teach Your Children. Added intrigue: Three of the works were owned by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and all of them are tied to one of the world’s biggest ever financial crimes.

They’re offered in an auction that ends Thursday, poised to raise millions of dollars for the citizens of Malaysia, the ultimate victims in the 1MDB scandal that saw $4.5 billion illegally siphoned from a state wealth fund between 2009 and 2015.