The Banksy Girl Girl picture returns to the crime scene.
Three years after self-destruction partially during an auction in London, what remains of the work is raffled this Thursday in the same place.
This new version, renamed as Love is in the bin (love is in the trash), is rated between 4 and 6 million pounds (4.6 and 7 million euros, 5.5 and 8.2 million dollars)
, according to the Sotheby’s auction house.
This estimate, which could even be short, is between four and six times higher than the price reached in the first sale to an anonymous collector in 2018.
The famous urban artist, whose identity remains a mystery, left the world stunned at that auction, also at the Sotheby’s house in London.
As soon as the hammer sounded, awarding the picture to the highest bidder, a mechanism hidden in the frame shattered the lower part of the fabric, which represents a girl leaning a heart-shaped balloon.
Now only the balloon remains on a white background.
With this action, Banksy said he wanted to denounce the “commodification” of art although, to the dessert, the remains of his work probably revalued.
In his statement announcing the sale, Sotheby’s described the destruction as the most spectacular “‘Happening’ artistic of the 21st century”, framed “in the inheritance of the contractural art that began with Dadaism and Marcel Duchamp.”
“During that surreal night of three years ago I became an accident in the privileged owner of love is in the trash (…) but it is time to separate from him,” said the anonymous buyer, cited in the Sotheby’s statement.
Girl with a globe appeared for the first time in 2002 as a graffiti on a wall on the south bank of London and became named as the work of art preferred by the British.
On Friday, a dipty version of this work will also be auctioned in the British capital, but this time by the Christie’s firm.
Made in 2005, the party canvas in two can reach between 2.5 and 3.5 million pounds (3.4-4.8 million dollars, 2.9-4.1 million euros).
After the effect of 2018, the value of Banksy’s works shot at the auctions.
In March, Game Changer (change of game rules), a canvas in honor of the health personnel in the Coronavirus pandemic, was sold in Christie’s for 16.75 million pounds (22.9 million dollars, 19.5 million
of euros).
This mysterious artist from Bristol (southern England) became known for his provocative graffiti that invited the reflection of society.
In 2005 he painted Flower Bomber (the flower pitcher) on a wall of Jerusalem where he portrays a masked protester about to launch a bouquet of flowers.
Banksy has taken advantage of his work to criticize Brexit, express his support for migrants or alerting climate urgency.