Monkey money: Banksy’s UK parliament chimps set auction record
Bidding for Devolved Parliament took 13 minutes, netting $12m and entering new turf for the British street artist.
A painting depicting members of the British Parliament as chimpanzees sold Thursday for 9.88 million pounds ($12.2 million), shattering an auction record for the mischievous street artist known as Banksy.
Bidding for the 14-foot-wide painting, titled “Devolved Parliament,” lasted 13 minutes before the hammer fell at Sotheby’s evening auction of contemporary art.
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The work, acquired by Sotheby’s Emma Baker for an anonymous client, had a presale estimate of 1.5 million to 2 million pounds.
The sale smashed Banksy’s previous auction record of 1.04 million pounds set last year when another of his paintings, “Girl With Balloon,” famously self-destructed.
A shredding device installed within the piece was remotely activated after the final bid had been accepted.
Thursday’s auction saw no such shenanigans – at least not yet.
Sotheby’s sold more than three dozen works for a total of 54.4 million pounds, including Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Pyro,” which matched the Banksy price of 9.88 million pounds, including fees.
A Nicole Eisenman canvas, “Close to the Edge,” fetched 639,000 pounds, a record for the American artist.