NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors have filed court papers seeking permission to seize a smuggled 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat from a New York City warehouse.
Basquiat was a well-known U.S. artist, who frequently collaborated with Andy Warhol and dated singer Madonna during the 1980s. He died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at the age of 27.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say art smugglers shipped Basquiat's "Hannibal," which is said to be worth at $8 million, from London to New York through Kennedy Airport by pretending it was a $100 knockoff, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.
The painting was discovered by federal investigators in a Manhattan warehouse in November.
The work vanished from the $30 million collection of convicted Brazilian money launderer Edemar Cid Ferreira in 2005. Brazilian police have been looking for it since then, the Daily News said.
