Jay Z buys Basquiat painting for $4.5 million, report says

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Hip-hop mogul Jay Z paid $4.5 million for "Mecca," a 1982 painting by his fellow Brooklyn artist, the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, the New York Post reported.

The "Empire State of Mind" rapper was the anonymous buyer of the painting at a Sotheby's auction in Manhattan last week, the newspaper said.

The work is an orange, white and black acrylic and oil-stick work, featuring the Empire State Building under Basquiat's signature crown symbol, the Post said.

Basquiat died of a heroin overdose in 1988. He was 27.