It was in October 2018 when a Banksy picture was shredded in front of everyone in the Sotheby's auction house, which had just been sold for 1.2 million euros. "Girl with Balloon" became "Love is in the Bin" in just a few seconds - "Love is in the bucket". Banksy's criticism of the art circus.
Supposedly it was just a glitch that the picture was not completely destroyed; It is rumored that the artist, whose identity is still unknown, sat in the audience to press the trigger. The action caused a worldwide sensation and was once more a hallmark of Banksy's protesting stance and a symbol of the absurdity of the art market. The ensuing artistic act of Marcel Duchamp's tradition and the Fluxus movement, which focused on the plot rather than the work of art, was assigned.
On his Instagram account Banksy left only a short comment: "Going, going, gone!" - "First, second and third!" - sold. To whom the work belongs since then is not known. It is said that an anonymous collector bought it and she announced that she liked it even when it was new. After hanging in the Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden for four weeks shortly after the action, it has meanwhile been handed over to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart on permanent loan - planned as a crowd puller.
Auction Title: "I can not believe that you idiot really buys this shit"
Banksy is booming and his critique of capitalism is selling very well. Items that the artist has designed are auctioned at auctions for up to six-figure sums. All this happens to the delight of the dealers, who are now opening Banksy Festival Weeks: in mid-September, three auctions will be held with works by the British graffiti master.
From the 11th to the 21st of September the auction house Christie's offers a whole lot of its screenprints online. The title of the auction is: "Banksy: I can not believe you morons actually buy this sh * t" ("I can not believe that her jerk really is that shit buys "). The motto is taken from a Banksy screenprint showing a Christie's auction of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" for $ 40 million in 1987 in London.
Already on Friday afternoon, starting at 4 pm, Sotheby's colleagues will launch "Banksy / Online" and sell 44 of his screen prints for two weeks. Yessika Marks, the company's specialist in print graphics, said of the auction: "Banksy prints are becoming increasingly successful, and part of the artist's appeal lies in its ability to surprise anyone who loves his work to take."
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Banksy Auctions: Template Artist with MessageThis simultaneity of the auctions is considered by art experts to be a spectacle, in which the auction giants fight a small battle over the sales proceeds. But that's not all.
Third is Bonhams Auction House, where they announced they would be auctioning a Volvo truck on the 13th and 14th of September at the Goodwood Revival Sale in West Sussex, an auction of British auto classics, the Banksy in 2000 sprayed during a New Year's Eve party in Spain. Within two weeks, the truck, a FL6, built in 1988, to a total work of art can be seen, for example, winged monkeys, SWAT teams and gas masks.
Bonhams Communications Director Lucinda Bredin told SPIEGEL about the auction: "There is already a tremendous interest in the artwork, and we are preparing for a big rush on the auction day, which could be the most valuable truck ever sold in the world." The auction house hopes for a revenue of the equivalent of 1.6 million euros.
However, at the Christie's and Sotheby's auctions this time, the prices are not in the millions, because many of the works offered for sale have been published in high circulation. Christie's gives the total estimate of his auction at only $ 500,000. At Sotheby's, the prices for a Banksy are between £ 3,000 and £ 60,000.
By the way, both auction houses have variations of "Girl with Balloon" in their program. Whether Banksy will intervene with a spectacular action again?
