On May 20, Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape will be sold in front of an invite-only crowd in Tiffany & Co in New York, when it is tipped to make between $13 million and $18 million.
Fair Warning, the members only auction platform that usually operates online, are hosting the sale. Founder Loïc Gouzer told Artnet News: “It is becoming clear that Banksy is probably one of the most consequential artists of our time. It’s hard since within the art world, you’re not supposed to like Banksy because the art world didn’t make him—he’s the only artist who made himself.”
Gouzer used to work for Christie’s, and has since decided to shake up the auction world in the way that Banksy has impacted the world of popular art.
This painting was produced for the artist’s Crude Oils series that parodied bucolic landscapes. The Girl and Balloon motif is Banksy’s most famous image, and has been reproduced (legally and illegally) millions of times.
The current auction record for the artist (who is anonymous, but is almost certainly from Bristol) is $25.4 million achieved in 2021 in London. Other paintings from the Crude Oils series have made $14.5 million (Sunflowers from Petrol Station in New York in 2021), and $9.1 million (Show Me the Monet, in London in 2020).
Fair Warning’s first live sale realised $16.7 million for Andy Warhol’s portrait of Bridgit Bardot.
Fair Warning has now introduced No Warning, a direct sale and binding bid feature on its app. This sale seems likely to further cement its foothold in the auction scene.
Auction sales in all sectors are adapting to new technologies, markets, and challenges, no doubt the Fair Warning model will be watched closely.
