A painting of Banksy from the collection of fashion icon Paul Smith will be auctioned at Bonhams London on June 29, estimated at $2.3 million. Smith bought the canvas, Congestion charge (2004), from the artist’s 2004 pop-up exhibition “Santa’s Ghetto” in London and has curated it ever since.
The painting is from a group called ‘Vandalised Oils’ or ‘Raw Oils’ which were made famous in 2005 at the London exhibition ‘Raw Oils: A Gallery of Remixed Masterpieces, Vandalism and Vermin’ , where visitors were forced to share exhibition space with rats hired from a film production company. In these works, the artist riffs on old masters or alters paintings found in thrift shops around London.
Congestion charge comes from the latter group and shows a pastoral scene, with a barnyard and cows, on which he has painted a traffic sign indicating that the congestion charge will be in force in this “central area” at certain times. The sign satirizes the policy put in place in London to reduce rush hour traffic.
The painting “demonstrates Banksy’s indisputable and enduring motto as a social commentator and contemporary artist,” said Ralph Taylor, global head of post-war and contemporary art at Bomhams, in a press release. “Banksy’s ‘vandalized oils’ have consistently proven to be among the most valuable and coveted works of his oeuvre – and Congestion charge is no exception.
He added: “This painting is one of the first examples in his series that translates Banksy’s subversive interventions in urban spaces to elite spaces of high art.”
Indeed, other “vandalized oils” have fetched some of the artist’s highest prices. Blacksmith Sold Gas Station Sunflowers (2005), a riff on Van Gogh, at Christie’s New York in November 2021; it went within the $14.6 million estimate, currently the artist’s third-highest price. An unknown seller Show me the Monet (2005), meanwhile, featuring a ransacked view of the Impressionist’s garden, surpassed its $6.6 million estimate when it sold at Sotheby’s London in October 2020 for $9.9 million. It is Banksy’s sixth highest price at auction.
Paul Smith. Courtesy of Bonhams.
The current of the artist auction record is $25.4 million, for painting Love is in the trash (2018), produced at Sotheby’s London in October 2021. This infamous work had been offered at auction at the same house three years previously as girl with balloonreaching $1.4 million, but was quickly partly destroyed by a shredder hidden inside the artwork’s frame.
Smith’s dedication to art is well known. A 2019 The Sotheby’s video reveals it in his studio with works by Peter Blake, Shepard Fairey, David Hockney and Patti Smith. He has even was guest artistic director for the “Picasso Celebration” exhibition at the Picasso Museum in Paris.
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