Last week, we shared the news that street artist Banksy's former agent, gallery owner Steve Lazarides, was offering up 32 rare prints as a part of the Contemporary Art & Design auction at Bonhams. The Jan. 28 sale surpassed the auction house's estimates, with the print collection selling for a total of 434,600 pounds (or $653,203), according to Reuters.
The results of the auction have been posted on Bonhams' site, and the totals are pretty incredible given that most of the Banksy lots are street art prints and not originals chiseled from walls. Precision Bombing (2000) sold for $60,000, Rude Copper (2002) sold for $49,000 and made its estimate of $18,000 seem like chump change, and both Laugh Now (2004) and Christ With Shopping Bags (2004) sold for over $30,000.
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There was a brief period last year when art dealers were having a hard time unloading their Banksy murals from his "Better Out Than In" street art residency in New York City. Joseph Gross Gallery director Casey Gleghorn's theory was that people were just "getting greedy" and trying to capitalize on the hype, but maybe it was just really bad timing.
[via Reuters]
