Banksy print fetches more than $79,000 at Auckland auction

A signed print of Girl with Balloon by Banksy was sold at an Auckland auction to a buyer in Britain.

A signed Banksy print has sold at auction in Auckland for $79,280.

This was nearly $30,000 more than the top price the auction house, Art+Object, had said it expected the print to fetch.

"It's not bad for a print that was one of 600 prints of that image that the artist produced," said the auction house's art director, Ben Plumbly.

"Generally value is closely associated with rarity. When you have an edition of 600 you assume something's not that rare."

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Posted by Art+Object on Sunday, 1 April 2018

Plumbly said there were around 14 people bidding for the print, of whom only two were in the room. The rest were on the phone or participating through the internet.

The internet bidding went to $50,000, after which there was a contest between a man in the room and a person on the phone from Britain who ultimately won.

The print is of Girl with Balloon, painted in London in 2002. It was signed by Banksy and dated March 8, 2011. The 700mm by 500mm print was held in a private Wellington collection.

An exhibition featuring 80 of the anonymous artist's works, worth around $40 million, was in Auckland for the summer.