Robert Mapplethorpe’s Man in a Polyester Suit Sells for $478,000

Agent provocateur Robert Mapplethorpe’s work of gender and sexuality has generated controversy for decades. But in 1989, Senator Jesse Helms lear...

Agent provocateur Robert Mapplethorpe’s work of gender and sexuality has generated controversy for decades. But in 1989, Senator Jesse Helms learned that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) had appropriated $30,000 for an exhibition in Philadelphia, and he penned a letter denouncing the NEA with a coalition of 100 senators.

The Corcoran Museum in DC backed out of an exhibition, but Mapplethorpe’s show The Perfect Moment traveled to Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center (CAC). CAC Director Dennis Barrie was charged with breaking obscenity laws, but was later acquitted.

Photo by Robert Mapplethorpe. Blurred to be SFW.

One of the image in that show was the accurate, yet ironically titled “Man in a Polyester Suit,” which features the torso of a black man in a three piece suit with his large, uncircumcised penis exposed.

According to The New York Times, the last time the print sold at auction in 1992, it was acquired for a mere $9,900. Today, the image was sold at Sotheby’s for $478,000 including fee – a 4800% increase in twenty five years.

Mapplethorpe died on March 9, 1989 from complications arising from AIDS – before much of the controversy surrounding his exhibition and work erupted.