Most expensive Banksy artwork sold at auction

The half-shredded artwork Love is in the Bin (2018) by anonymous British street artist Banksy realized £18,582,000 ($25,327,400) – including buyer’s premium – when sold at Sotheby’s in London, UK, on 14 October 2021. Without auction fees, the piece cost £16 m ($21.8 m).

This infamous artwork started life as Girl with Balloon, where it achieved a then-artist record sale price of £1.042 m ($1.353 m) in 2018, however after the hammer fell at that auction, it proceeded to self-destruct via a shredder built into its frame. At that point, it became known as Love is in the Bin.

The final hammer price for Love is in the Bin far exceeded the guide price of £4–6 m ($5.5–8.2 m).

This beats a previous sale record for this artist of £16,758,000 ($23,211,600) – including buyer’s premium – for the artwork Game Changer sold on 23 March 2021 at Christie’s in London, UK, most of which went to an NHS charity to support hospitals and medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, Banksy’s most expensive artwork was Devolved Parliament, which achieved £9,879,500 ($12,136,600) on 3 October 2019.

Although now world-famous for his distinctive stencilled graffiti, as well as making political statements through his art, Banksy’s true identity remains a secret, despite having emerged on the graffiti scene (originally around Bristol) in the early 1990s.

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History of Auctioneering

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