Banksy’s £7m Monet maker: Reclusive artist’s work parodying a Claude Monet masterpiece sells for a fortune at auction
- Price achieved for Show Me the Monet is the second highest yet for the artist
- Five collectors pushed the winning bid beyond an estimate of up to £5million
- The 2005 painting transforms Monet’s Water Lily Pond into a fly-tipping spot
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 beyond an estimate of up to £5million.
The price achieved by Sotheby’s for Show Me the Monet is the second highest yet for the mysterious British artist (pictured)
Created in 2005, the painting transforms Monet’s Water Lily Pond into a fly-tipping spot.
Experts said it was one of the strongest and most iconic of the artist’s works to go on sale.
A Banksy depicting the UK parliament populated by chimpanzees fetched £9.9million a year ago.
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.
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’.
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’ (picture)
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.
‘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,’ said Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s European Head of Contemporary Art.
‘Recent years have seen seminal Banksys come to auction, but this is one of his strongest, and most iconic, to appear yet,’ he added.
