Thu 07 October 2021:
On Wednesday, more than two dozen artworks of renowned boxer Muhammad Ali were auctioned off at Bonhams in New York for about $1 million.
According to the BBC, the champion boxer auctioned a total of 26 artworks, including a rare collection of drawings, sketches, and paintings.
Sting Like a Bee, one of the most anticipated pieces, sold for $425,000, more than ten times its pre-sale estimate.
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Some of the works for sale were traditional nature paintings, while others were more personal, cartoon-like sketches.
A 1979 red, white and blue painting on canvas, with the words “I Love You America”, sold for $150,000, while a 1967 sketch in felt pen comparing Islam to Christianity and depicting a lynching fetched $24,000.
The former world heavyweight champion — who announced his conversion to Islam in 1964 after winning the title for the first time when he went by the name Cassius Clay — died in 2016 at age 74 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Ali is regarded as one of the greatest athletes, activists, and poets of all time, yet his artistic abilities are overlooked.
“Muhammad Ali was a cultural icon who defined a generation. His artwork depicts those subjects close to his heart: Boxing, Civil Rights, Religion and World Peace and Humanitarianism,” said Helen Hall, Bonhams Director of Popular Culture, before the sale.
Bonhams said he drew and painted all his life – encouraged by his father who was a professional artist and eventually taking lessons from sports artist LeRoy Neiman.
The works were put up for auction by art collector and friend Rodney Hilton Brown, who says Ali painted his first three paintings in 1977 after a fight in Boston.
The art works were sold for a total of $945,524, three times the expected amount.
Born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky, on Jan. 17, 1942, he later embraced Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali in 1964.
Ali, regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, won the world heavyweight championship three times during his career.
He was admired around the world for his professional sports abilities as well as his fight for human rights.
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