Banksy works fetch astonishing prices at London auction

Arts News

Oct 25, 2007, 18:47 GMT

London - Works by British graffiti artist Banksy sold for well above their estimates at auction in London, yielding a total of 546,000 pounds (1.09 million dollars), auction house Bonham's said Thursday. The most expensive work, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, which was estimated at a maximum of 80,000 pounds, went for 96,000 pounds. It depicts two policemen looking through binoculars and appeared in Banksy's first big show in his hometown of Bristol in 2000. Another Banksy original, Balloon Girl from 2003, sold for 57,600 pounds, also well above the estimate of up to 30,000 pounds. The controversial work Lenin on Rollerskates (Who Put the Revolution on Ice?) fetched 48,000 pounds, from an estimated price of between 20,000 and 30,000 pounds. The black and white stencil depicts the Russian revolutionary roller-skating on skates bearing a red Nike symbol. It has a red stencilled signature to the side of the canvas, inscribed '10/25/2003 Thanks Mate Banksy.' Ten originals were offered in the sale, featuring mostly spray- paint stencils and works painted on canvas, board and metal. As well as the original works, a Banksy print entitled Di Faced Tenners also went under the hammer, selling for 24,000 pounds, compared with an estimated maximum of 7,000 pounds. The controversial screen print consists of a series on ten-pound notes where the head of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has been replaced by that of the late Princess Diana. Gareth Williams of Bonham's said the prices reinforced Banksy's popularity and the strength in the contemporary art market. 'Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the Banksy phenomena is neither his meteoric rise, nor the substantial sums of money that his art now commands, but that as a self-confessed guerilla artist, he has been so wholeheartedly embraced by the very establishment he satirises.' © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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