Banksy’s parody painting of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies masterpiece sells for £7.6million
BANKSY’S oil painting parody of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies has sold for nearly £7.6million at auction.
The eye-watering fee is the second-highest price ever paid for a work by the British street artist.
His Devolved Parliament sold for £9.9 million last year while earlier this month, his graffiti-style piece Forgive Us Our Trespassing sold for $8.3 million at Sotheby's in Hong Kong.
Show Me the Monet sold to an unidentified bidder at Sotheby’s in London on Wednesday evening, following a tight nine-minute battle between five collectors, the auction house said.
The piece flew past its upper pre-sale estimate of £5million – fetching exactly £7,551,600.
In the 2005 work, Banksy added abandoned shopping carts and an orange traffic cone to Monet’s iconic image of water lilies in his garden at Giverny, northern France.
MONET MAKER
Show Me The Monet forms part of a series titled Crude Oil, which "remixes" canonical works.
The series also includes Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers wilting or dead in their vase, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks confronted by an angry man in Union Jack boxer shorts and Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe re-faced with Kate Moss.
Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s European head of contemporary art, said the work was one of the strongest Banksy works to appear at auction.
“Banksy has taken Monet's iconic depiction of the Japanese bridge in the Impressionist master's famous garden and transformed it into a modern-day fly-tipping spot, he said.
"More canal than idyllic lily pond, Banksy litters Monet's composition with discarded shopping trollies and a fluorescent orange traffic cone.
“Here, Banksy shines a light on society's disregard for the environment in favour of the wasteful excesses of consumerism."
MONETBAGS
The Sun revealed this week that Robbie Williams was a member of a consortium hoping to by the piece.
A source said: “Robbie knows art’s a safe investment.
“He’s a major player in a syndicate of enthusiasts who are understood to be keen on it."
It has not been confirmed whether the ex-Take That star was successful.
Banksy, whose real name has never been officially confirmed, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol and has become one of the world’s best-known artists.
His work, often popping up on buildings in stunts, always generate widespread publicity.
He’s a major player in a syndicate of enthusiasts who are understood to be keen on it.
In 2008, bidders were stunned when his famous 'Girl With The Balloon' piece partially shredded itself as the hammer came down for £1million at Sotheby's.
The work was retitled 'Love Is In The Bin'.
While this summer, Banksy used the sale of his artworks to finance a 30-metre motor yacht to rescue migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.
It was named after 17th century French anarchist Louise Michel and featured Banksy artwork on its exterior.
However, the mission ended in tragedy when the rescue boat became stranded in the Mediterranean Sea today with one person dead on board.
The vessel was unable to move due to an overcrowded deck after picking up 219 migrants and was eventually saved by the Italian coastguard.
MYSTERY ARTIST
Banksy has never been unmasked and it is believed his refusal to reveal himself started as a way of avoiding prosecution for vandalism.
The elusive artist is believed to have given a glimpse of his identity in a 2003 interview ahead of his Turf War exhibition.
The two-minute report, by ITV News correspondent Haig Gordon, features the artist speaking for 35 seconds.
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He is wearing a baseball cap and has a T-shirt pulled over his lower face, but his eyes, eyebrows and forehead are visible.
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"I'm disguised because you can't really be a graffiti writer and then go public," he tells Gordon, who has since retired.
"The two things don't quite go together."
