Jay Z Purchases $4.5 Million Dollar Basquiat Painting

During an auction held at New York art dealing house Sothebys last week, an anonymous buyer purchased a painting by famous artist Jean-Michel Basquait. The painting entitled "Mecca" was bought for a cool $4.5 million dollars. The New York Post is reporting that the anonymous buyer of the painting was hip-hop mogul Jay Z today.

In numerous songs over the years, Jay Z has voiced his admiration of Basquiat, who died at age 27 in 1988 of an apparent heroin overdose. Jay Z has previously declared in songs that he owns several of Basquiat's paintings and on his 2012 song, "Picasso Baby," compared himself to the painter when he said "It ain't hard to tell/I'm the new Jean-Michel."

You can see an image of the painting in the picture above.

[Via Complex]