Journalism of Courage
The drawings of Jean-Michel Basquiat — “The Athlete” and “Starvation” — will be included among the 400-some items in next month's 20th century and contemporary art sale at the Phillips Auction House in New York. They're each valued at more than $200,000. What's special about the collector is that it is none other than former footballer Alan Page, and his late wife Diane Sims Page. Diane died in 2018, and her surviving husband and children decided the time was right to auction her treasured art pieces. (Source: AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)
Basquiat, who died of a drug overdose in 1988 at the age of 27, drew and painted edgy, crude and eclectic images that have transcended his short life. One of his pieces sold for a record $110.5 million in 2017. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
The Pages had no idea those drawings, purchased in 1985 from a gallery in New York at the suggestion of one of their daughters, would become so valuable. “They just spoke to us both visually, but also in terms of sort of what we read into them,” Page said in an interview. “We lived in at the time and continue to live in a world that, for those who are fortunate, there is plenty. But for the accident of birth you could easily be in a place where starvation was real and literal. The athlete, given my athletic history, spoke to us also.” (Source: AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)
Page played 15 years in the NFL, a six-time All-Pro with the famed "Purple People Eaters" who was so dominant as a defensive tackle he won the league MVP award in 1971; This from November 23, 1970 file photo shows Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr (15) looking for a receiver as Minnesota Vikings Alan Page (88) charges him and Carl Eller (81), left, grabs his arm during the second half of an NFL game in Minneapolis, Minn. Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle. (Source: AP Photo/File)
He became even more prominent after leaving the game as the first Black justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. After retiring from the bench in 2015, philanthropy and activism moved to the front burner. His wife, a market research expert, spearheaded the Page Education Foundation that was created to honor their shared commitment to supporting students of colour. (Source: AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)
More recently, Page joined Neel Kashkari, the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, to push for an amendment to the state constitution in recognition of the significant racial disparity in educational success that exists in Minnesota. “We’ve seen what an adequate education system does: It works well for some and it doesn’t work well for others,” Page said. “For those that it doesn’t work well for, it really doesn’t work well for. (Source: AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)
