LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANKSY
As fury erupts over another sold-off mural, we look at those who cashed in on the undercover artist’s work… and those who missed out
BANKSY has done it again, bestowing the equivalent of a national lottery win on a complete stranger whose property was transformed into a priceless work of art in the dead of the night.A nondescript Nottingham wall was chosen by the graffiti artist, proving he is the gift that keeps on giving – in this case a six figure sum. Back in October residents in Rothesay Avenue in the city’s Lenton area woke to find a black and white picture of a little girl using a tyre as a hula hoop. Now the property owner – who resisted calls from locals for the artwork to remain – has pocketed a large (undisclosed) sum from art dealer John Brandler who took the artwork away and rebuilt the wall.
Brandler, who runs a gallery in Brentwood, Essex, won’t reveal how much he paid for Hula Hooping Girl, but his investment is sure to increase in value as the work of Banksy – whose personal wealth is now estimated at £50million – becomes ever more sought after.
The BBC’s arts editor Will Gompertz was among those annoyed by the sale. “It was intended to be there, enjoyed by people, to be a social comment – it wasn’t Banksy’s intention that it be chipped off the wall and taken somewhere else,” he said.
But Brandler is unrepentant. “Some of the comments directed at me have been over the top,” he says. “I paid a fair price for it, it will be restored and it is now protected. If it had stayed there it wouldn’t have lasted that long because dampness was already getting into the bricks.The perspex put on the front of it by the council was too close.”
Once restored, he will, for a price, loan it to exhibitions. Brandler is more fortunate than some other would-be Banksy collectors.When it comes to the artists’ public works, there are winners and losers in the great Banksy lottery...
This early work has become an icon of Banksy’s street art with various versions painted on walls around London. The image was also used in 2005 to support Palestinians in the West Bank and in 2014 to shed light on the crisis in Syria.
A poll taken in 2017 said that Girl With Balloon was the United Kingdom’s favourite artwork. A 2004 mural on a shop in Shoreditch, East London, fetched £37,200 at Sotheby’s but was sold again in 2015 for £500,000 to a mystery buyer.