1. The Banksy piece entitled “Picnic” was sold to American actress Angelina Jolie and actor Brad Pitt for $226,000. The artwork depicts a white family enjoying a nice picnic while remaining oblivious to the small crowd of starving Africans that surround them. Typical of Banksy’s sarcastic political statements, this piece exemplifies much of what Banksy’s art seems to strive to communicate. The piece is loosely based on Manet’s classic painting titled “The Picnic, or (Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe) and uses the obvious contrast in the two main elements as a technique to satirise income inequality around the world and the often racial motivations behind that inequality.
2. Due to the unconventional nature of Banksy’s art, the auction of his art often comes along with the auction of the attached house. In one of the most notable of these situations was the sale of a property for $400,000, in the South West of England. The mural on the wall of the house provided, courtesy of Banksy, was worth most of the price of the entire sale. The owners sold the house in 2007 through the Red Propeller Art Gallery. Originally, the owners were distraught that many of the potential buyers would want to remove the mural, so the sale to the art gallery was a good decision; resulting in the preservation of the piece, as well as a fair amount of cash for the former owners.
3. The highest asking price for a Banksy piece so far comes from a couple selling a mobile home in Norfolk, UK. The couple had met Banksy at a music festival more than a decade ago, before Banksy was anything more than “just another tagger,” and they allowed him to use their mobile home as a canvas, leaving them a work of art with a value that was previously unimaginable for the couple. The owners decided to sell their house for $1 million because they believed that they were not capable of taking care of such a work of art.
4. The buyer of a Banksy work that appeared on the wall of a London man’s garage for the meager price of $2,000 paid well. The buyer spent an additional $60,000 on painstaking removal of the mural which can now be worth as much as $600,000.
5. Most recently, a Banksy mural sold for over $400,000 at an eBay.com auction in January 2008. The piece, which depicts a painter, his color palette, and box of supplies as he paints the name ” Banksy” in red graffiti, was painted on the side of a building on Portobello Road in London.
Recently, there has been concern among many of his fans about how the possible unmasking of the mysterious Banksy would affect his sales and the general popularity of his work. Would collectors still pay so much for his work if he didn’t remain anonymous? We may never know for sure; Banksy has clearly expressed his confidence in his ability to hide his identity and plans to do just that.