Names and faces
■ A Banksy painting honoring Britain’s health care workers in the pandemic has sold for a record $23.2 million, auction house Christie’s said Tuesday. Proceeds from the sale will be used to fund health organizations and charities across the U.K., it said. The work by the mystery street artist, titled “Game Changer,” first appeared on a wall at Southampton General Hospital in southern England in May, during the first wave of the pandemic. The black-and-white picture depicts a boy sitting on the floor playing with a nurse superhero toy, as Batman and Spider-man toy figures lie in a trash basket next to him. At the time it went up, the hospital said Banksy left a note for workers there saying: “Thanks for all you’re doing. I hope this brightens the place up a bit, even if it’s only black and white.” The sale took place on the day Britain held a minute’s silence to mark one year since Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the first national lockdown. Christie’s said the sale price was a world auction record for Banksy. The auction house said it will donate a “significant portion” of the buyer’s premium to health organizations. A reproduction of the picture will stay at the hospital for patients, visitors and staff members, Christie’s added. “Banksy is an extraordinary artist who is a constant barometer of nationwide sentiment,” said Katharine Arnold, who heads the European post-war and contemporary art division at the auction house. “With the perfect image of a little boy playing with his superhero doll, a nurse sporting the international Red Cross, he perfectly captured the essence of this moment in time.”
■ “Survivor” is reborn. The reality series is set to begin making new episodes in Fiji for the show’s 41st season, host Jeff Probst announced. It has been more than a year since production was delayed during the pandemic. “We have all of our covid protocols in place so that everybody in Fiji will remain safe, all of our crew will be safe and of course our players will be safe,” Probst said Monday in a Twitter video. Production was initially postponed by CBS last March, with hopes at the time that operations could resume two months later. That didn’t end up being the case, however, and the new season of “Survivor” was removed last summer from the network’s fall schedule. A release date for the 41st season has not been announced. “I’ve got to tell you, I can’t remember a time I’ve been this pumped to shoot ‘Survivor,’ and I’ll tell you why,” Probst said in Monday’s video. “The past year has reminded me, and I hope it’s reminded you, that you got to live your life like it’s one big, great adventure, and ‘Survivor’ fulfills that.”