*Wine of Babylon,* the 1984 Jean-Michel Basquiat work at the center of a nearly three-decade ownership dispute.

The Curious Case of the Missing Basquiat

For 16 years, a $20 million Basquiat was at the center of a bitter legal battle between an Oscar-winning Italian producer and his ex-wife. Then, just as mysteriously as it vanished, it turned up in a Miami warehouse

By Mattia Ferraresi

This summer—in the heat and humidity of Miami—a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting estimated to be worth $20 million was reportedly discovered in a warehouse. It had been missing for 16 years, but its surprising reappearance has done little to settle the question of who actually owns it.

Wine of Babylon, painted in 1984 at the height of the artist’s fame, has been at the center of a bitter legal battle lasting nearly three decades between the Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori and his ex-wife, Rita Rusic, a Croatian-born actress and singer who became a producer herself.