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LONDON - A painting attributed to cult graffiti artist Banksy is set to fetch more than 200,000 pounds (NZ$496,000) in an online auction.
The work, depicting an artist in old-fashioned clothes putting the finishing touches to the word "BANKSY" spray-painted in red, was scrawled on a wall on the Portobello Road in the West London district of Notting Hill.
It is being offered for sale on the e-Bay auction site. So far 68 people have placed bids, with the highest being 207,299 pounds.
Whoever wins the auction may well get the painting and the wall it's on, but they'll have to work out for themselves how to get the whole work delivered and pay to replace the wall.
"I am selling the wall because I can't really justify owning a piece of art worth as much as it is," said Luti Fagbenle, the owner of the property the graffiti is sprayed on.
"Essentially I think there are many Banksy fans out there and art collectors who would love to have it," he told Reuters.
Fagbenle said the artist had employed people to put up scaffolding on a Sunday morning, when Portobello's market was in full swing, so that he could paint the work unseen. Neighbours were fobbed off when they got curious, he said.
"A few hours later the scaffolding went down. And there it was," Fagbenle said.
Banksy's provocative works, which include paintings on Israel's barrier through the West Bank and commentaries on consumerism and power, have become favoured collectors' items.
The reclusive artist, who hails from Bristol, is highly sought after by the likes of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who bought a Banksy painting at a Los Angeles auction for 200,000 pounds (NZ$496,000) in 2006.
- REUTERS
