Banksy's artwork
CND Soldiers
was put up for sale by its owner, who did not disclose his name, to raise funds for the Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv.
The sale takes place on the MyArtBroker auction house website in the form of a
“silent auction”
, for a floor price of 20,000 pounds sterling (24,000 euros) doubled in just a few hours.
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Discover the “Best of the Goncourt Prize” collection
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"Despite active bombardments and airstrikes from Russia, Ohmatdyt specialists remain in Kiev to protect and care for children who are taken to hospital
," greets the British house MyArtBroker in a press release.
“Thanks to the selfless work of the hospital, patients receive timely medical care and the funds raised will ensure that this important work
continues,” she continues.
Read alsoBanksy pays tribute to British caregivers with a mural in a hospital
The sale of the work has been online since Friday, March 18.
For one of the managers of the British house, it is already bearing fruit.
“We are honored by the incredible generosity shown in a flurry of offers over the weekend, doubling the starting offer in just a few hours.
We are now only accepting bids over £40,000
,” said Joey Syer, one of the operations professionals at MyArtBroker, whose entire commission will also be distributed to Kyiv Children's Hospital. .
Read alsoA Banksy inspired by Van Gogh aims for 15 million euros at auction
Made in 2005, the work depicts two soldiers in combat gear, one watching his back with a submachine gun, the other holding a brush in his hands painting a peace sign on a wall in red.
Originally, this sign symbolized the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) of 1957. According to the specialist site
Banksy Explained
,
"the satirical juxtaposition of armed soldiers and the peace sign calls into question the role army in peacekeeping”
, the latter of which, painted in dripping red,
“evokes the bloodshed of war”
.
Read alsoBanksy claims in a video the paternity of the graffiti on the walls of an English prison in Reading
This is not the first time that a work by Banksy has been the subject of a charity sale in recent years.
Indeed, in May 2020, his
Game changer
painting , which represents a boy in overalls brandishing the doll of a super-nurse and abandoning those of Batman and Spider-Man, was sold for 14.4 million pounds sterling.
More recently, in his hometown of Bristol, the artist auctioned off his “anti-
colonialist”
t-shirts , reports Italian newspaper
Repubblica
.
An initiative whose money was used to finance the legal costs of the four defendants tried for having destroyed the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston.
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