How a £25 Banksy bargain has paid for our £10,000 wedding
HE MADE his name as the art world’s master of surprises – so it is fitting that two works by Banksy should land a couple with a windfall big enough to pay for their dream wedding.
Victoria and Darren Richardson were rooting around a boot fair when they stumbled across three prints of the worldfamous graffiti artist’s work. They assumed they were cheap copies and managed to haggle the seller down from £45 to £25 for the set.
It was only when they got back from the fair in Chelford, Cheshire, to their home in nearby Sandbach and spotted serial numbers on two of them that they suspected they may have snapped up a real bargain. Victoria, 45, said of their find last September: ‘Darren said he thought the pictures might be genuine Banksys. But I didn’t believe it.’ Darren, a manager for JCB, then contacted Pest Control, the handling service which acts on behalf of the elusive artist.
Two months later they were stunned when two certificates arrived confirming the pictures were limited-edition Banksy prints entitled Applause and Silver Flag.
The couple sold Silver Flag for £4,000 and Applause for £6,000 to two separate buyers online and tied the knot at De Vere Cranage Estate Hall Hotel in Crewe last week.
Victoria said: ‘It was such a perfect day.’
Art expert Tina Ziegler said: ‘Finding a Banksy like this is particularly fitting.
‘He’s made his name by being surprising and hiding in plain sight.’