New Banksy – from Blur to Bloomsbury auctions
The Banksy piece created for Blur is to go to auction in a sale of modern and contemporary art taking place at Bloomsbury Auctions on Thursday.
‘Lot 90: Banksy (b.1975) UNTITLED, 2003, spraypaint with stencil on concrete blocks, approx.
96 x 72in.’ price? ‘£30,000-£50,000.’
‘Yes, it is a lot, and no, we’d never heard of Banksy before,’ said Mr Walmesley , the farmer whose duckhouse Banksy painted . He came down to London with a trailer carrying the concrete blocks in a reinforced steel frame.
Banksy had also tested his aerosol cans on a steel barn door. ‘But then the barn was renovated and Steve was going to chuck the door in a skip,’ remembers Lucy’s boyfriend, David Smith.
‘I rescued it because I liked the image – a girl with a television set – stuck it in our Fiesta, took it home and there it sat in our living room.’ David, too, remained blissfully unaware of Banky’s significance until a friend suggested he have the piece valued. He sold it for £32,000 at Bonhams last year.