{"id":49429,"date":"2026-04-13T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=49429"},"modified":"2026-04-13T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T10:41:00","slug":"art-collector-claims-kanye-wests-teenage-paintings-are-worth-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=49429","title":{"rendered":"Art collector claims Kanye West&#8217;s teenage paintings are worth millions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Kanye West\u2019s protracted and vicious racism appears not to have damaged the value of his early artworks.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, we reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2021\/02\/11\/kanye-wests-teenage-paintings-bought-by-art-collector\/\">Washington D.C. based entrepreneur and art collector, Vinoda Basnayake, purchased West\u2019s teenage drawings<\/a> for an undisclosed amount after seeing them on PBS \u201cAntiques Roadshow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pieces were appraised on the show for around $16,000 to $23,000. <\/p>\n<p>But Basnayake now claims that they\u2019re actually worth $3.1 million after he had them appraised by the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice late 2025.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Kanye West was apparently a teenage art prodigy.  <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>West\u2019s teenage art collection includes a drawing of his late mom, Donda West.  <span class=\"credit\">YouTube\/Daily Blast LIVE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The collection features five paintings and drawings \u2014 including a \u201ccirca 1995\u201d drawing of West\u2019s late mother, Donda West, valued at $335,000 \u2014 that West made when he was an art student at\u00a0Polaris School in his hometown of Chicago, Il.<\/p>\n<p>Basnayake didn\u2019t reveal how much he paid for Ye\u2019s work at the time due to an NDA. <\/p>\n<p>But interest from social media and online publications like rap news site Bars encouraged him to make it public.<\/p>\n<p>Basnayake claimed to Page Six that his appraiser said the TV valuation \u201cmaterially missed the bigger picture because they approached the work as typical celebrity art, which on its own doesn\u2019t usually command major value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The USPAP\u2019s appraiser view \u201cwas that the pieces should instead be contextualized as the opening chapter in the creative journey of Kanye West, someone who went on to become one of the best-selling producers, musical artists, and fashion designers of an entire generation\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Art collector Vinoda Basnayake tracked down the paintings after seeing them on PBS\u2019 \u201cAntiques Roadshow\u201d in 2021.  <span class=\"credit\">YouTube\/Daily Blast LIVE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Ye\u2019s teenage art collection is $3.1 million.  <span class=\"credit\">YouTube\/Daily Blast LIVE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>The pieces were appraised for $16k to 23K on the PBS show.  <span class=\"credit\">YouTube\/Daily Blast LIVE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>West\u2019s legacy has since been tainted by his racist and anti-semitic rhetoric.  <span class=\"credit\">AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Kanye has been banned from entering England to perform.  <span class=\"credit\">ShotbyNYP \/ BACKGRID<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stars like Dave Chappelle and Erykah Badu have supported him at recent sold-out concerts.<\/p>\n<p>But the UK\u2019s Wireless Festival was canceled after several brands pulled out due to West being its headliner. The government also <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/04\/07\/celebrity-news\/kanye-west-banned-from-entering-england-was-wireless-festival-is-canceled\/\">refused permission for West to enter England<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/04\/13\/society\/art-collector-claims-kanye-wests-teenage-paintings-are-worth-millions\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kanye West\u2019s protracted and vicious racism appears not to have damaged the value of his early artworks. In 2021, we reported that Washington D.C. based entrepreneur&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}