Records broken on art auctions

Banksy banks a record £102,000

TOM TEODORCZUK Arts Correspondent

THE sale record at auction for a work by guerrilla artist Banksy was smashed today when a controversial anti-war picture was sold for six figures.

Bombing Middle England, a work of acrylic and spray paint on canvas, fetched £102,000 at Sotheby's contemporary art sale at Olympia.

The picture, which depicts three elderly women throwing grenades as if they were playing lawn bowls, had a £50,000 estimate.

Commissioned by its private seller in 2001, it was purchased by a mystery buyer.

The sale confirms 31-year-old Banksy's status as the auction world's unlikeliest new star. His previous auction sale record was £62,500, set at Bonhams in October.

Other pieces by the reclusive artist sold today included Bomb Hugger, a trademark spray paint stencil portraying a young girl clutching a missile to her chest.

It fetched £31,200, more than £6,000 above its highest estimate.

Balloon Girl made £37,200, almost four times its £10,000 estimate.

However, another Banksy work, Precision Bombing ?- which has the rare distinction of having been signed on the reverse by the artist ?- failed to sell.

Tomorrow, Sotheby's will sell three more works by Banksy, including Ballerina With Action Man Parts, a painted resin figure of a dancer wearing a gas mask.

Last year, Banksy's take on Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was sold at Sotheby's Olympia for £57,600, while his six prints of model Kate Moss ?- portrayed in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe series ?- realised £50,400 at the same sale.