Guerilla Art: Banksy

Artist deposits £100,000 in his banksy account

By Tom Teodorczuk
Evening Standard 19.10.06

He was initially dismissed by many in the art world as a maverick prankster but now graffiti artist Banksy has established himself as a modern art heavyweight in the auction houses.

The reclusive artist broke his own record at auction yesterday when his unique take on Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa was sold for £57,600 to a UK-based private collector at Sotheby's Olympia Contemporary Art sale and a Kate Moss series made another £50,000.

The prices confounded those present, given the pre-sale estimate for the Mona Lisa was £15,000 to £20,000. The bidding frenzy led to Banksy more than doubling his previous highest price for a piece, £21,000, which was set at another Sotheby's Olympia auction last June.

In his version of the Mona Lisa, Banksy used his familiar stencil technique to depict the famous subject with spray paint dripping from her eyes. A Metropolitan Police evidence tag is attached to the stretcher at the back of the picture.

Collectors were not content with just his reinterpretation of Da Vinci's iconic work; a set of six prints of Kate Moss - portrayed in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe series - fetched just over £50,000 when they went under the hammer.

Elli Varnavides, contemporary art specialist at Sotheby's Olympia, said: "Of the five lots that we had for sale by Banksy, two of them ended up being our top sales. We were expecting a very impressive sale but because Banksy's record at auctions is relatively new, some people were unsure. But the outcome has been spectacular.

"The Kate Moss lot was also bought by a private collector. The estimate was £10,000 to £15,000, so it's quite sensational to go over five times the low estimate. I believe Kate Moss was happy about Banksy using her image in an iconic way."

Ms Varnavides added: "It's not often that we sell works with spray paints but we'll be seeing a lot more of Banksy as he seems to be building up a global presence. We are very excited about including works by him in his next sale in February."

Last month, Banksy held a show in Los Angeles that attracted Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jude Law and Keanu Reeves. Jolie reportedly spent more than £200,000 on the Bristol-born artist's works.

Banksy's previous efforts include creating a 3.5-tonne bronze of the Old Bailey's statue of Justice wearing thigh-high PVC boots and a suspender belt. He also hung a "cave painting" of a primitive man pushing a shopping trolley, in the British Museum.

Laughing all the way to the Banksy

Vanessa Thorpe, arts, media correspondent
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer


Banksy, the anonymous graffiti artist who has turned the art world on its head, is to have a collection sold at Sotheby's for the first time.
The auction house is mounting several sales covering the work of the Impressionists and of contemporary artists in Mayfair and at a marquee in Hanover Square Gardens, west London.

The seven works by Banksy included in the sale are estimated to go for a total of £167,000, but the interest shown so far has led the auction house to suspect that there will be competition, particularly for a ballerina sculpture.

'It is definitely one of the favourites,' said Cheyenne Westphal of Sotheby's. 'It is incredibly fresh and translates his message into very simple visual language.There are some people who just think he is a fad, but there have been remarkably few raised eyebrows this time.'
The sculpture, 'Ballerina with Action Man Parts', was influenced by the work of Edgar Degas and, by coincidence, three of the French artist's studies of ballerinas are up for sale tomorrow. They may put Banksy in the shade with a combined estimate of £4.9-£7.3m. Last month one of Banksy's pieces sold for £57,000 at auction, while Angelina Jolie paid £200,000 for a work sold in Los Angeles.