Gabrielle Union Buys Painting for $40k From A 17yrs Old Street Artist in Miami (Details, pics)

Gabrielle Union gets what she wants -- even if that means shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for street art.

Gabrielle was doing an interview to promote a book at the Epic Hotel in Miami, where an art exhibit was also going down at the Avant Gallery.

Gabrielle stumbled in and came across 17-year-old street artist Skyler Grey's artwork -- a painting of famed NYC artist Jean-Michel Basquiat as Juan Ponce de Leon. He calls it "King Jean Michel."

The actress liked what she saw and dropped $40,000k for the 50" x 65" piece ... straight-up.  

It Turns out this is not a crazy amount of money for Skyler's work. It was gathered that the $40k range is his going rate. He's sold pieces to Diddy, Nick Cannon, The Game, and former L.A. Dodgers player Carl Crawford.