Jay-Z, Beyonce Slammed for Posing in Tiffany Ad With Never-Before-Seen Basquiat Painting

A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat never before seen by the public has finally emerged, though not at a museum or a gallery. Images for an ad campaign for Tiffany & Co. featuring Beyoncé and Jay-Z were released Monday, and Basquiat’s teal-and-black Equals Pi appears behind the couple. The painting features a color resembling Tiffany’s signature blue, which Alexandre Arnault, a Tiffany’s executive vice president whose family owns the painting, believes is not a coincidence, though he admitted he could not back up the assertion. “We don’t have any literature that says [Basquiat] made the painting for Tiffany,” Arnault told WWD in an interview, though he claimed that the color is “so specific that it has to be some kind of homage.” Arnault’s hails from a French dynasty that includes the world’s third-richest man, LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault. Many were angered that an advertisement was the first time the piece was shown to the public, calling it “gross” and “tone-deaf.” Users on social media argued that Basquiat, who started as a graffiti artist, wouldn’t approve of his art being used in an advertisement.