A painting by famed French contemporary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and worth an estimated 10 million euros ($11.3 million) has been stolen from its owner's Parisian home, police said on Saturday.

The painting was removed without any trace of a break-in from a plush apartment near the Elysee presidential palace and the interior ministry.

The owner returned home on Friday after three days away to discover the painting, details of which were not made public, was missing, police said.

With no sign of a break-in police suspect a family quarrel as the motive for the theft.

Basquiat, a New Yorker of Haitian and Porto Rican origin close to avant garde legend Andy Warhol, died from an overdose in 1988 aged just 27 but is a much-coveted contemporary artist.

He started out as a graffiti artist in Lower Manhattan but a meeting with Warhol helped transform his fortunes.

His 1982 work 'Dustheads' fetched $48.8 million two years ago at Christie's.

(AFP)