Sotheby's has labeled some lots featured in two future sales a "Banksy Bonanza." Permit me to scratch my head a moment; I'm not certain if we, the art loving/buying public, are being bonanza-ed with scarce Banksies, or if they mean certain bank accounts are in for a massive influx of cash. Either way, I have mixed feelings about the upcoming Banksy auctions. On one hand, it's validating - and vicariously thrilling - to see an "unknown" artist one has championed hit The Big Time. (If you've hung around the About Art History site for any length of time, you doubtless know of my gleeful admiration for the artist/gentleman vandal Banksy.) On the other hand, wow. Now everyone else loves his work, too, which means it's so "in" that movie stars are snapping it up, which means his prices are skyrocketing, which means I've lost any hope in Hades of ever acquiring a Banksy. The irony of the system throwing a wrench into one of its cogs is not lost on this wee sprocket.
My faux dilemma aside, Banksy works will be on offer at Sotheby's February sales of Contemporary Art at both Olympia and New Bond Street on Wednesday, February 7, and Thursday, February 8, 2007, respectively. Interest is high, as the artist's "...Mona Lisa was sold at Sotheby's Olympia on October 18 last year for £57,600. His six prints of Kate Moss – portrayed in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe series – realised £50,400 in the same sale." Is Banksy getting a cut? I certainly hope so. His true identity will be much easier to out if he starts driving around in a Maseratti ... wait! ... I don't want to know his true identity. The not-knowing is a large part of the Banksy fun. What if he turned out to be a talented artist with an ordinary name like Fred? Eh. Where's the mystique there?
Poll: Banksy : Worthy Artist or Scofflaw?
Image credit:
Banksy (British, b. 1975)
Bomb Hugger
Acrylic and spraypaint stencil on canvas
30 x 30 cm (11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.)
© the artist
(Lot estimate: £18,000-25,000)
Photograph provided by Sotheby's
Comments
This makes me wish I had come across one of the Banksy altered Paris Hilton CD’s. Maybe I could have paid a portion of student loans off with it.