Chimps as MPs: Banksy sets auction record
LONDON A large Banksy painting depicting primates sitting in Britain’s parliament sold for more than $12 million on Thursday, a record price at auction for a work by the secretive British street artist, according to Sotheby’s.
Devolved Parliament, in which chimpanzees replace politicians in the House of Commons, more than comfortably surpassed its estimated price tag of 1.5 mn to 2 mn pounds, with the auctioneer declaring “history being made” at one point during the sale which was streamed live.
After bidding that lasted some 13 minutes, the 2009 artwork from a private collection sold to loud applause for a hammer price of 8.5 mn, to which fees are added giving a final price of 9,879,500 pounds ($12.2mn). “Record price for a Banksy painting set at auction tonight. Shame I didn’t still own it,” Banksy wrote on Instagram beside a post quoting art critic Robert Hughes. “... The price of a work of art is now part of its function, its new job is to sit on the wall and get more expensive.
:Instead of being the common property of humankind the way a book is, art becomes the particular property of someone who can afford it,” the post quoted Hughes as saying.