Banksy artwork sells for almost US$10 million at auction
A member of staff poses in front of a work of art by Banksy entitled Show Me The Monet at Sotheby's auction house in London, Oct 16, 2020. (Photo: AP/Alastair Grant)
LONDON: Banksy’s playful take on a famous Impressionist painting has sold at auction for £7.6 million (US$9.8 million), the second-highest price ever paid for a work by the British street artist.
Show Me the Monet sold to an unidentified bidder at Sotheby’s in London on Wednesday (Oct 21) evening, surpassing its upper pre-sale estimate of £5 million.
In the 2005 work, Banksy added abandoned shopping carts and an orange traffic cone to Claude Monet’s image of water lilies in his garden at Giverny.
Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s European head of contemporary art, said the work was one of the “strongest and most iconic” Banksy works to appear at auction.
Banksy, whose real name has never been officially confirmed, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists.
Another Banksy work, Devolved Parliament, sold last year at Sotheby’s in London for £9.9 million.
Earlier this month, his graffiti-style piece Forgive Us Our Trespassing sold for US$8.3 million at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong.
