Banksy at Sotheby’s

Posted: June 14th, 2009 | Author: | Category: Auctions | Tags: , | 3 Comments »

With the recession, we’ve seen an end to those “Urban Art Auctions” at Bonhams and Dreweatts which seemed cool but a bit let they were secluding Urban Art away from the the rest of the art world. Now, urban/street art is appearing more in Contemporary Art auctions, which, I think, is a good sign for the future of the genre.

That’s why I was excited to see this iconic Banksy canvas in Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Auction on the 26th of June in London.

Banksy Flower Thrower

Of course, a lot of Banksy work has gone unsold in auctions lately. Hopefully Banksy’s Bristol show will pique interest in this piece. I’d love to see some more street art get strong prices at a contemporary auction, and this could be Banksy’s chance.

Related posts:

  1. A successful Banksy (oh and Banksy updated his website)
  2. Before Banksy, that “Elephant” tank was a man’s home
  3. Banksy complains the old-fashioned way
  4. Banksy news update

  • Viktor O

    There are also a couple of street art auctions in Paris:

    1. Millon & Associes is hosting what I believe to be its first sale of the sort on June 20. There are a couple of nice Seen and WK Interact pieces in the sale and the auction house has made a conscious effort to include some biographical info on the artists but in my opinion the quality of the work presented is overall quite mediocre.

    http://www.world-encheres.com/millon/vo20062009SA/asp/index.asp

    2. Artcurial is having its semi-annual street art auction on June 29. The quality is a little better but not great. Seems like some galleries are unloading pieces in the sale which in the long run will hurt the artists if the pieces go unsold.

    http://www.artcurial.com/en/

  • http://www.vandalog.com RJ

    Millon’s auction definitely plays to the French love of American style graffiti. Some gems in there, but a lot of crap for sure. I wish the best 15 pieces of that auction could be moved into a “contemporary art” auction.

    The Artcurial website doesn’t seem to be working, so I can’t see that catalog.

  • Viktor O

    Had the same experience when trying their website earlier (which is why I not post the link to the catalogue). Will send to you via email.