Not so long ago, we had an article telling about “Devolved Parliament,” the most expensive Banksy painting ever sold at an auction so far. At the very end of the post, we had an imprudence to write, “..maybe the future will surprise us even more?” Well, we did not even suspect how right we were then. A couple of days ago, another Banksy artwork, “Show Me the Monet,” was sold for a mouth-watering $10 million, which became a big surprise for the global art audience.
$10 million for the Banksy painting “Show Me the Monet”
On Wednesday, October 22, Banksy painting parodying Claude Monet’s legendary “Water Lilies and Japanese Footbridge” was sold at Sotheby’s auction in London. Nine collectors were fighting for the piece of art for about nine minutes, but the painting eventually went to an anonymous private collector from Asia. The most surprising thing is that the estimated cost of the piece ($4.5-6.5 million) was far from the final price, which makes it clear that the result of the sale exceeded all expectations.
“Show Me the Monet” was created by Banksy back in 2005 for the “Crude Oils” exhibition, the purpose of which was to show famous paintings in a different, modernish light. This notable Banksy painting has become the second most expensive artwork by the celebrated graffiti artist, beating “Mediterranean Sea View” with its $2.9 million.
Like any other work by Banksy, “Show Me the Monet” is rather symbolic and impregnated with a palpable message. In the painting, Banksy transforms organic nature around the bridge into the nature spoiled by the human hand since we see the shopping carts and a traffic cone in the water. Banky himself commented on the piece, “The real damage to our environment is not done by graffiti writers and drunken teenagers, but by big business and lazy architects.” Terse. Sarcastic. Relevant. Banksy style.