The Banksy effect (2006–2007)
"There are crimes that become innocent and even glorious through their splendour, number and excess."
Banksy[29]
After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000,[30] on 19 October 2006, a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work. The six silk-screen prints, featuring the model painted in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pictures, sold for five times their estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction.[31] In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy effect," to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success.[32]
Naked Man image by Banksy, on the wall of a sexual health clinic[33] in Park Street, Bristol. Following popular support, the City Council has decided it will be allowed to remain – (wider view).
On 21 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three works, reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England. Two of his other graffiti works, Balloon Girl and Bomb Hugger, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively, which were well above their estimated prices.[34] The following day's auction saw a further three Banksy works reach soaring prices: Ballerina with Action Man Parts reached £96,000; Glory sold for £72,000; Untitled (2004) sold for £33,600; all significantly above estimated values.[35] To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit."[36] In February 2007, the owners of a house with a Banksy mural on the side in Bristol decided to sell the house through Red Propeller art gallery after offers fell through because the prospective buyers wanted to remove the mural. It is listed as a mural that comes with a house attached.[37] In 2008, Nathan Wellard and Maev Neal, a couple from Norfolk, UK, made headlines in Britain when they decided to sell their mobile home that contains a 30-foot mural, entitled Fragile Silence, done by Banksy a decade prior to his rise to fame. According to Nathan Wellard, Banksy had asked the couple if he could use the side of their home as a "large canvas," to which they agreed. In return for the "canvas", the Bristol stencil artist gave them two free tickets to the Glastonbury Music Festival. The mobile home purchased by the couple 11 years ago for 1,000 GBP, is now being sold for 500,000 GBP.[38]
In April 2007, Transport for London painted over Banksy's iconic Pulp Fiction image of a scene from Quentin Tarantino's film, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns.[39] Although the image was very popular, Transport for London claimed that the "graffiti" created "a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime" and their staff are "professional cleaners not professional art critics."[40] Banksy tagged the same site again and, initially, the actors were portrayed as holding real guns instead of bananas, but they were adorned with banana costumes. Some time later, Banksy made a tribute artwork over this second Pulp Fiction work. The tribute was for 19-year-old British graffiti artist Ozone who, along with fellow artist Wants, was hit by an underground train in Barking, East London on 12 January 2007.[41] Banksy depicted an angel wearing a bullet-proof vest holding a skull (pictured below left). He also wrote a note on his website saying:
The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns. A few weeks later a writer called Ozone completely dogged it and then wrote 'If it's better next time I'll leave it' in the bottom corner. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone – rest in peace.[42]
Ozone's Angel
On 27 April 2007, a new record high for the sale of Banksy's work was set with the auction of the work Space Girl & Bird fetching £288,000 (US$576,000) around 20 times the estimate at Bonhams of London.[43] On 21 May 2007 Banksy gained the award for Art's Greatest living Briton. Banksy, as expected, did not turn up to collect his award and continued with his notoriously anonymous status. On 4 June 2007, it was reported that Banksy's The Drinker had been stolen.[44][45] In October 2007, most of his works offered for sale at Bonhams auction house in London sold for more than twice their reserve price.[46]
Banksy's "Stonehenge" from portable toilets at the Glastonbury Festival, June 2007
Banksy has published a "manifesto" on his website.[47] The text of the manifesto is credited as the diary entry of one Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin, DSO, which is exhibited in the Imperial War Museum. It describes how a shipment of lipstick to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation at the end of World War II helped the internees regain their humanity. However, as of 18 January 2008, Banksy's Manifesto has been substituted with Graffiti Heroes No.03 that describes Peter Chappell's graffiti quest of the 1970s that worked to free George Davis of his imprisonment.[47] By 12 August 2009 he was relying on Emo Philips' "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn't work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness." A small number of Banksy's works can be seen in the movie Children of Men, including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing and another stencil of a child looking down a shop.
Banksy, who "is not represented by any of the commercial galleries that sell his work second hand (including Lazarides Ltd, Andipa Gallery, Bank Robber, Dreweatts etc.),"[48] claims that the exhibition at Vanina Holasek Gallery in New York City (his first major exhibition in that city) is unauthorised. The exhibition featured 62 of his paintings and prints.[49]
