Hardly a week seems to pass without the British street art artist Banksy causing a sensation. Sometimes a street sign with a "Banksy" is stolen, sometimes a whole sweep of his works is auctioned off. After mid-September three bids with Banksy works took place within two weeks, the next auction at the British auction house Sotheby's is already announced for October 3 - just a few weeks before the (current) Brexit appointment on October 31st.
This time around, the work "Devolved Parliament" is offered for sale, which the artist created in 2009 for the Bristol City Museum and the exhibition "Banksy vs. Bristol Museum" under the name "Question Time". In 2011, the painting was sold anonymously by Banksy and returned to the museum in early 2019 by its owner on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the painting and the originally planned Brexit event on March 29th, and made available to the public.
The 4.5 meter wide and 2.8 meter high canvas painting shows the British lower house full of chimpanzees. The auction value of the image estimates Sotheby's on the equivalent of 1.7 to 2.2 million euros. For a single "Banksy" this is an unusually high price. Thus, the total sum of the September auctions of the two auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's at the equivalent of about 3 million euros.
As late as March of this year, Banksy commented "Devolved Parliament" on his Instagram profile with a reference to the day of Brexit and the words, "Now you might laugh, but one day nobody will have the shots anymore".
Check out this post on Instagram
, Devolved Parliament I made this ten years ago. Bristol museum on display to mark Brexit day. , "Laugh now, but one day no-one wants to be in charge."
A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Mar 28, 2019 at 7:41 PDT
Now, the New York Times and the Süddeutsche Zeitung report that close observers have found out that the painting has changed a few things when comparing photos from the 2009 Bristol Museum and recent catalog recordings. Immediately striking: It has become bleak in the lower house, the chandeliers at the top of the picture no longer brighten the room.
Banksy / Sotheby's / Bristol Culture
The current, dim variant.
Mauritius images / Alamy / Frederick Wood Art
The original version of the painting.
More carvings have been added to the parliamentary benches, and the banana the chimpanzee is holding in the left front of the picture is now brown and hanging limply down, where it was still yellow in the previous version and pointed upwards.
Banksy / Sotheby's / Bristol Culture
New picture. Old banana.
Mauritius images / Alamy / Frederick Wood Art
Old picture. Fresh banana.
Is this a publicity stunt or a new political statement? Sotheby's had not noted the change in the picture in their online catalog at first and only on demand of the "New York Times" explained that the house the changed details are known. The company Pest Control, Banksy's authority for authenticity verification of his works, confirmed that it was the same painting. Whether Banksy has made the changes itself, is not yet confirmed.
