NEW YORK, United States — Diane Rode, a
senior director at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, said she remembers
Keith Haring’s energy as he painted a mural before a crowd of patients in 1986.
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“When children are very sick, experiencing enormous
amounts of pain, anxiety, fear, to experience something like that, it creates a
field of inspiration and hope,” Rode said in an interview.
More than 30 years later, the mural, roughly 5m wide
and about 1.2m tall, was auctioned on Thursday for $945,000 by Sotheby’s in
New York. A portion of the proceeds is going toward programming and clinical care
at the Mount Sinai children’s hospital and citywide outpatient locations.
The work, “Mural for the Mount Sinai Hospital, New
York”, was estimated to sell for $500,000 to $700,000, Nicole Schloss, the
Sotheby’s head of contemporary art day sale, said.
“A work like this really underscores how much he
valued children, how much he wanted to bring joy to the world,” Schloss said.
The hospital demolished its pediatrics building,
which housed the mural, in 1989, to build a new main campus. Rode said a
hospital staffer preserved the five-part mural, and that it has remained out of
public view.
Haring created nearly 50 public works throughout the
1980s. Some — like a Boys’ Club mural and a mural at Grace House youth center,
both in New York — have been rescued before building demolition. Haring had
also created works along the outside of the 88-foot stairwell of Necker-Enfants
Malades hospital, in Paris; the hallway walls of Schneider Children’s Hospital
in New Hyde Park, New York; and the interior of the Grady Hospital pediatric
emergency room, in Atlanta.
“We are generally not in favor of these works being
sold and going into private hands because that’s not what they were meant to
be,” Gil Vazquez, the executive director of the
Haring Foundation, said.
But Vazquez said he was grateful the mural remained
intact and that the sale would help children.
“This sale continues that spirit of generosity,” Vazquez
said, referring to Haring. “We’re happy about it.”
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