An oil painting by Banksy parodying a Claude Monet masterpiece sold in London yesterday for £7.6million. The price achieved by Sotheby...
An oil painting by Banksy parodying a Claude Monet masterpiece sold in London yesterday for £7.6million.
The price achieved by Sotheby's for Show Me the Monet is the second highest yet for the mysterious British artist.
Five collectors pushed the winning bid to £7,551,600 against an expectation of between £3.5-5million.
Created in 2005, the painting transforms Monet's A Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies into a fly-tipping spot, adding abandoned shopping trolleys and a traffic cone to the famous garden scene.
The price achieved by Sotheby's for Show Me the Monet (pictured) is the second highest yet for the mysterious British artist. Created in 2005, the painting adds abandoned shopping trolleys and a traffic cone to the famous garden scene
The genuine Monet - a Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies - which is one of the most famous paintings ever produced. The 1899 oil on canvas was included in a series of eighteen views of the footbridge in the French painter's garden
Experts said it was one of the strongest and most iconic of the artist's works to go on sale.
The painting is the second most expensive Banksy sold at auction, after the reclusive artist's Devolved Parliament, depicting the UK's House of Commons populated by chimpanzees, sold for £9.9 million last year.
On that occasion the 2009 work attracted a 13-minute battle between 10 different bidders.
Sotheby's said: 'The hammer came down after five determined collectors battled for nearly nine minutes to drive the final price beyond its estimate of £3,000,000-5,000,000 to become the second highest price for the artist at auction.'
Show Me the Monet was created as part of a collection called 'The Crude Oils' and had first been shown publicly in only Banksy's second gallery exhibition.
The series also includes Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers wilting or dead in their vase, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks confronted by an angry man in Union Jack boxer shorts and Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe re-faced with Kate Moss.
Alex Branczik, Sotheby's European head of contemporary art, said: 'In one of his most important paintings, Banksy has taken Monet's iconic depiction of the Japanese bridge in the Impressionist master's famous garden at Giverny and transformed it into a modern-day fly-tipping spot.
'More canal than idyllic lily pond, Banksy litters Monet's composition with discarded shopping trollies and a fluorescent orange traffic cone.
'Ever prescient as a voice of protest and social dissent, here Banksy shines a light on society's disregard for the environment in favour of the wasteful excesses of consumerism.'
Monet's original 1899 oil on canvas was included in a series of eighteen views of the footbridge in his garden, accumulating to the completion of twelve paintings.
In 2018 Banksy's 'Girl With The Balloon' partially shredded itself (pictured above) as the hammer came down at Sotheby's, becoming the retitled 'Love Is In The Bin'. He continues to use his art in stunts that generate huge publicity
The founder of French Impressionist painting bought a home near Giverny, Normandy, with a pond as he wanted to create something 'for the pleasure of the eye and also for motifs to paint', according to the Met Museum of Art.
The artist's identity remains shrouded in mystery even as his works have begun to attract increasingly high sums at auction.
Meanwhile he continues to use his art in stunts that generate huge publicity.
In 2018 his 'Girl With The Balloon' partially shredded itself as the hammer came down at Sotheby's, becoming the retitled 'Love Is In The Bin'.
Banksy has become a household name since the turn of the century, after his iconic graffiti paintings began to appear overnight on buildings and at sites around the world.
The artist's identity remains shrouded in mystery even as his works have begun to attract increasingly high sums at auction.
Meanwhile he continues to use his art in stunts that generate huge publicity.
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