Featured Banksy painting "Devolved Parliament" of Primates sells for $10 million

Tonight at Sotheby's.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/article...bC1Tqr-dRWw1cM7WCuCuWahOVaHipimebDgBxH3meMrXY

 

One born every minute, richer they are, the more stupid.

Just my opinion of course!

 

Banksy is doing the Happy Dance.

 

It didn't belong to him though, someone else consigned it (I think)

 

I'm not sure about this one but Banksy has sold directly through Southeby's before.
He shredded this painting after the hammer fell.

 

I went back to look, this was from a private collector. I don't know if Banksy does this or not, some living artists, put copyrights and sale stipulations on their paintings where they retain the right to a percentage of future sales and sales of copies.

 

WOW!! Well, I'm glad to see it's a very fine painting, a work of art.

I like his spray paint work, but didn't know he also painted beautiful brush work in color. I've always called this sort of work, "neo-realism", and hope the term fits?

 

Banksy is not a huge fan of art as investment/art for the rich.

That was the reported "artist's commentary" behind the shredder stunt.

From his Instagram account "... The price of a work of art is now part of its function, its new job is to sit on the wall and get more expensive. Instead of being the common property of humankind the way a book is, art becomes the particular property of someone who can afford it..."

 

Banksy is a self promoter by claiming to be anti-establishment but, he's still producing for the establishment, the fame and the money while still making his own point on current affairs. He's brilliant. His shredder stunt made the work more valuable and made him more famous, even though people have no idea who Banksy is.

Have you seen the documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop"? To this day, people still think the entire thing was another Banksy hoax. He claims to be annoyed that people don't believe it was real. At the time it came out, I shared models with a group of other artists that I went to art school with and this documentary was a hot topic almost every week. Another brilliant money making move by making fun of what people will buy as art, only because of what someone else says about it, and the artist. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with next now that his work broke a record.

 

That's what i said here: https://www.antiquers.com/threads/piece-of-art-shreds-itself.31062/#post-411426

Brilliant marketer.

But there's no way he would be publicly profiting from a major auction house sale of his work.

Totally off brand.

 

That "Devolved Parliament" seems very atypical for Bansky - more in the dogs-playing-poker vein than social comment or guerilla art.

 

Yes I agree.

 

NOT getting political here, and Yesterday's sale was amazing!!!! But wondering if the painting isn't more of a reflection or what our (USA) government (both sides!) is "devolving" into.......sort of............and yes, he IS making fun of it!!!!

 

hrmmm... think you have to overlook a lot to make this about the US.

...still, not saying whether it fits.

 

I don't doubt that it has a lot of currency (in several senses of the word), but it loses impact merely by being so academic and cliched. It's Victorian/Edwardian in concept and execution. Perhaps part of its appeal is that it appears to be a standard canvas, as opposed to a recovered section of wall.

 

Banksy has been selling his work through auction houses and private dealers for some time. Here is a quote from an article about the shredding incident and how it ended up in the sale and on the wall.


"I’m told that someone from Banksy’s publicity team contacted Sotheby’s to sell the painting Girl With a Balloon, but that the consignment came with stipulations, more or less as follows: a. the painting had to be hung in the salesroom during the sale; b. it needed to be sold in the latter half of the proceedings; and, c. it wasn’t to be examined out of the frame. As it’s not the norm to hang a relatively inconsequentially valued painting in the room (the pre-sale estimate was £200,000 to £300,000) during an evening auction, the house replied no.

The consignor countered by offering to pay a seller’s fee of around 5 percent. (That this person wasn’t automatically charged to place the work in the auction indicates that this was not a new relationship, and I’m told this PR liaison acts as a regular, go-to conduit for Banksy to feed art into the auction stream)."

 

Thanks for this post MCT After reading this I watched 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' (I'd never heard of it before), I quite enjoyed it. As for real or hoax, I have no idea, but if a hoax it is a great one

 

Glad you enjoyed it. Were you shocked that people bought those pieces at those prices?

 

truthfully no, it seems like people with more money than me will pay high prices for items that are 'in' at the moment. But did they really pay those prices, who knows? Part of the fun I guess, real or hoax? I do like street art, there are so many talented folks out there, a few here that do amazing stuff that disappears very quickly. I also like Banksy's art, good on him if he is profiting from his work
I really liked the TV robot in the film

 

this is interesting, thanks for sharing it