The Art Market
2021 Annual Report

 

Source: Artprice

Table of Contents

1. Key Figures
2. Market Segmentation by Geography
3. Market Segmentation by Medium
4. Market Segmentation by Period
5. Market Segmentation by Price
6. Top 5 Auction Houses
7. Top 10 Lots of 2021
8. Top 10 Artists by Revenue

 

1. Key Figures

---

Total Auction Revenue:
USD 17.1 billion

 

The Art market has fully recovered from the pandemic and shows once again its resilience. An increase of 60% from 2020, the 2021 revenues reflect a stronger, and more diverse art market than ever before.

 

Number of Transactions:
663,887

 

A record number of 663,887 artworks changed hands in 2021, this is 10 times more than 20 years ago, and an increase of 29% as compared to 2020.

The record number of transactions was accompanied by an historically low unsold rate of 31%, which is on average lower 9 points than in 2020.

# Lots sold above $ 1 million:
1,734 (+44%)

Lots sold under $ 10,000:
82% of Total Turnover

 

2. Market Segmentation by Geography

---

 

With a 43% increase from 2020, China is back at being the first auction market in the world by revenues, with USD 5.7 billion, just ahead of the United States posting USD 5.5 billion revenues for 2021.

 

The United States keep the lead of the art market with close to 140,000 lots sold in 2021, an historical record.

 

 

France crossed the USD 1 billion threshold in revenues in 2021 for the first time in its history. South Korea joins the top 10 countries for the first time generating over USD 237 million revenues with around 2,700 lots sold.

 

Hong-Kong is catching up on the UK, with only USD 200 million difference in revenues, generated from total sold lots four times lower. HK shows exceptional performance on the high-end segment, where new auction records are constantly broken.

 

3. Market Segmentation by Medium

---

Paintings remain the art market’s main medium. At USD 9.5 billion, Paintings represents 65% of the global art market in turnover, whereas it generates 35% of total sold lots. More than 233,500 paintings were sold at auction in 2021, an absolute record level for the medium. Paintings also account for most of the high-end market.

 

 

At USD 2.8 billion in revenues, Drawings are the second most sold medium in 2021. This segment represents 19% of the total lots sold.

Over 53,000 Sculptures were sold at auction in 2021 for a total close to USD 1.2 billion.

Prints are the fastest growing segment of the art market in 2021, with over 143,000, it generated USD 529 million, which is an historical record for the auction market.

NFT is still a small niche market, but with 279 sold lots, it generated over USD 232 million in revenues, which is ahead of Photography which only generated USD 142 million with 22,000 sold lots.

 

4. Market Segmentation by Period

---

 

Contemporary Art is the most dynamic segment, with revenues at USD 2.9 billion, an increase of 49% as compared to 2019, generated from 111,140 lots sold, an historical level. It now accounts for 17% of the global auction market, whereas it only accounted for 3% ten years ago.

 

 

Modern Art accounts for 38% of the global auction turnover and is the main driver of prestige auction sales. Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Rene Magritte, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Zhang Daqian, and Qi Baishi together account for over USD 1.6 billion in revenues, almost 10% of the global auction market.

Together, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art account for USD 11.8 billion or 69% of the global auction turnover.

 

5. Market Segmentation by Price

---

167 lots sold for over USD 10 million in 2021, more than double as in 2020.

Less than 0.2% of sold lots sold for over USD 1 million, but they contribute to more than 50% of total auction revenues in 2021.

More than 50% of all sold lots in 2021, over 320,000 lots sold for under USD 1,000

 

6. Top 5 Auction Houses

---

The performances of Sotheby’s and Christie’s in 2021 more than offset the sharp decline in their turnover in 2020. Together, they generate over USD 8.4 billion revenues from auction sales, which is around 50% of the Global Auction Turnover.

 

Phillips booked its best year ever since it was founded in 1796. Its average sold rate stands at an historical high of 88%. Its partnership with Poly International in Hong-Kong generated exceptional results in 2021, notably with one white glove auction in June 2021, and numerous auction records.

7. Top 10 Lots of 2021

---

 

#1. Pablo Picasso

 

PABLO PICASSO
Femme assise près d’une fenêtre, 1932
Oil on canvas
146×114 cm (57.5 x 44.9 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 103,410,000

Painted on 30 October 1932, Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) is one of the final great portraits that crowns the euphoric series of masterpieces from this seminal year. By this time, Marie-Thérèse had risen to ascendance in every area of her lover’s output. Here, in one of the most impressive and stately portraits Picasso ever painted of her, she has claimed absolute dominion, an idolized muse now reigning deity-like over the artist and his creation. On a monumental scale, Marie-Thérèse fills the expanse of the large canvas, and is pushed up to the very edge of the picture plane. As a result, she not only presides over the light-filled room of the composition, but her command breaks through into the viewer’s own space, rendering us mere mortals in her presence as we gaze up at her. No longer made of flesh and blood, Picasso has presented her as a winged goddess, a modern day Nike, aglow with light and life. Framed by a panel of sky blue, her head is lunar, luminous and sculptural as if carved from marble, while her body is sensuous and soft, a composite of curving planes orbiting around her fiery red torso.

 

#2. Jean-Michel Basquiat

 

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
In This Case, 1982
Acrylic and oilstick on canvas
77.9 x 73.7 inches (197.8 x 187.3 cm)
Christie’s New-York: 11 May 2021
USD 93,105,000

No subject is more powerful or more sought after in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s oeuvre than the singular skull. For the enigmatic artist, the human head was more than an obsession. As the punning title of In This Case implies, the head is a case or a cage for a cog-like machine teeming with impulses and ideas. Perhaps one of Basquiat’s greatest achievements: a cranial chasm into which the artist has poured the contents of his visual imagination, melting together centuries of stylistic influence. In 2018, a groundbreaking Basquiat retrospective opened at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris featuring a trinity of the artist’s skull paintings, together for the first time, in a small, chapel-like room. ‘Three Heads dating from 1981, 1982, and 1983. Listed Untitled, the first two are sometimes dubbed Skull, while the third is titled In This Case. At the time of the 2018 retrospective, both Untitled paintings had already achieved international recognition. Untitled (1981) was acquired by Eli and Edythe Broad the year after it was painted and is now housed at The Broad in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Untitled (1982) had recently realized the highest price achieved for an American artist at auction when it sold for over $110 million in 2017.

 

#3. Sandro Boticelli

 

SANDRO BOTICELLI
Portrait of a young man holding a roundel
Tempera on poplar panel
58.4 x 39.4 cm (23 x 15.5 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York: 28 January 2021
USD 92,184,000

In exceptionally good condition, this painting of a Young Man Holding a Roundel embodies Sandro Botticelli’s greatest achievements as a portraitist. Praised by the great Italian Renaissance scholar and museum director John Pope Hennessy as “a giant among portraitists,”1 Botticelli was celebrated in this field, yet precious few examples of his portraits survive today. Were it not for his fashionable tunic, the supremely elegant individual depicted here could have stepped out of one of Botticelli’s mythological or religious paintings, so striking is his resemblance to the beautiful figures that inhabit those works. Innovative in form and at the same time wholly characteristic of Botticelli’s genius, this timeless masterpiece dates to the height of his career. It represents the perfect visual expression of late quattrocento Florentine culture, yet the crisp simplicity of its setting and the lifelike presence of the sitter renders it profoundly modern.

#4. Mark Rothko

MARK ROTHKO
No. 7, 1951
Oil on canvas
Sotheby’s New-York: 15 November 2021
USD 82,468,500

For its vibrant coloration, transcendent aura, and pivotal date of execution, No. 7 stands amongst the finest masterworks from the incomparable painterly oeuvre of Mark Rothko. Executed in 1951—the very incipit of what David Anfam, the editor of the artist’s catalogue raisonné, refers to as the anni mirabilis of Rothko’s career—No. 7 dates to the critical moment in the early 1950s during which Rothko developed his signature style of abstraction and mature mode of artistic expression. Composed of three luminous and distinct bands of color, the vibrant coloration and atmospheric depth of No. 7 reflect the mastery of this transformative period. Rothko executed only 18 paintings in 1951; other significant works from this year reside in the collections of such esteemed institutions as the Tate, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Measuring over 7 feet in height, the towering scale of No. 7 engulfs the viewer in proportions that mirror the human body, encouraging deep contemplation and the profound optical experience that Rothko intended to provoke. Exhibited for the first time at Betty Parsons Gallery in New York in the year of execution, No. 7 has since been included in several major exhibitions of Rothko’s oeuvre, including the retrospective exhibition Mark Rothko, organized by the National Gallery of Art in 1998 and traveling to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.

#5. Alberto Giacometti

ALBERTO GIACOMETTI
Le Nez, 1951
Bronze, steel and iron
81.3 x 72.4 x 38 cm (32 x 28.5 x 15 inches)
Inscribed Giacometti, numbered 6/6 and inscribed with the foundry mark Susse Fondeur Paris
Sotheby’s New-York: 15 November 2021
USD 78,396,000

 

#6. Vincent van Gogh

VINCENT VAN GOGH
Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cypres, 1889
Oil on canvas
45.5 x 60.3 cm (17.9 x 23.8 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 71,350,000

#7. Claude Monet

CLAUDE MONET
Le Bassin aux Nympheas, 1917-1919
Oil on canvas
100×200 cm (39.4 x 79 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 70,353,000

The culmination of a lifetime’s study of nature, Monet’s epoque-defining series Nymphéas are among the most celebrated works of the Impressionist era. Painted in 1917-19, Le Bassin aux nymphéas comes from the revolutionary body of late work which propelled the artist toward the realm of abstraction and inspired generations of painters to follow. Monet’s beloved water gardens at Giverny take pride of place in the present work and served as the inspiration for the iconic series which defined the artist’s last two decades. Begun in the 1890s with his early Japanese Bridge scenes and carried throughout the Grandes Décorations, Monet’s Nymphéas series bears witness to all manner of light and season but more importantly to the unprecedented and intrepid artistic exploration of a singular motif.

 

#8. Beeple

BEEPLE
EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS
token ID: 40913
wallet address: 0xc6b0562605D35eE710138402B878ffe6F2E23807
smart contract address: 0x2a46f2ffd99e19a89476e2f62270e0a35bbf0756
non-fungible token (jpg)
21,069 x 21,069 pixels (319,168,313 bytes)
Minted on 16 February 2021.
Christie’s New-York: 11 March 2021
USD 69,346,250

8. Top 10 Artists Sold in 2021

---

 

#1. Pablo Picasso

Turnover: USD 671,513,270
# Lots: 3,452
Top Lot: USD 103,410,000

 

PABLO PICASSO
Femme assise près d’une fenêtre, 1932
Oil on canvas
146×114 cm (57.5 x 44.9 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 103,410,000

PABLO PICASSO
Femme au Beret Rouge-Orange, 1938
Oil and Ripolin on canvas
46×38 cm (18.1 x 15 inches)
Sotheby’s Las Vegas: 23 October 2021
Masterworks from the MGM Resort Fine Art Collection
USD 40,479,000

PABLO PICASSO
Mousquetaire a la Pipe II, 1968
Oil and Ripolin on canvas
146x 96.5 cm (57.5 x 38 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 34,710,000

PABLO PICASSO
Homme et Enfant, 1969
Oil and ripolin on canvas
195×130 cm (76 3/4 x 51 1/8 inches)
Sotheby’s Las Vegas: 23 October 2021
Masterworks from the MGM Resort Fine Art Collection
USD 24,393,000

PABLO PICASSO
Femme Accroupie en Costume Turc, 1955
Oil on canvas
91.5 x 73 cm (36 x 28.8 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 25,550,000

PABLO PICASSO
Femme Accroupie, 1954
Oil on canvas
91.5 x 73 cm (36 x 28.7 inches)
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 9 October 2021
USD 24,620,829

 

 

#2. Jean-Michel Basquiat

Turnover: USD 439,339,428
# Lots: 104
Top Lot: USD 93,105,000

 

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
In This Case, 1982
Acrylic and oilstick on canvas
77.9 x 73.7 inches (197.8 x 187.3 cm)
Christie’s New-York: 11 May 2021
USD 93,105,000

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Versus Medici, 1982
Acrylic, oilstick and paper collage on three joined canvases
84.2 x 54.2 inches (214 x 137.8 cm)
Sotheby’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 50,820,000

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
The Guilt of Gold Teeth, 1982
Acrylic, spray paint and oilstick on canvas
94.5 x 165.9 inches (240 x 421.3 cm)
Christie’s New-York: 8 November 2021
USD 40,000,000

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Untitled, 1985
Acrylic and oilstick on wood, in three parts
217.2 x 275.6 x 30.5 cm (85.5 x 108.5 x 12 inches)
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 18 June 2021
HKD 289,316,000 / USD 37,271,134

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Untitled (One Eyed Man or Xerox Face), 1982
Acrylic, spray paint, oilstick and Xerox collage on panel
72×48 inches (182.9 x 121.9 cm)
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 23 May 2021
HKD 234,290,000 / USD 30,175,146

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Donut Revenge, 1982
Acrylic, oilsticks, and paper collage on canvas
96x 72 inches (243.2 x 182.2 cm)
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 30 November 2021
HKD 163,300,000 / USD 20,953,023

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Untitled (Red Warrior), 1982
Acrylic and oil stick on linen
77×78 inches (195.6 x 198 cm)
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 9 October 2021
HKD 162,926,000 / USD 20,929,800

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Flash in Naples, 1983
acrylic, oil and oilstick on canvas
66×60 inches (167.6 x 152.7 cm)
Christie’s New-York: 8 November 2021
USD 19,825,000

#3. Andy Warhol

Turnover: USD 348,346,957
# Lots: 1,586
Top Lot: USD 47,373,000

ANDY WARHOL
Nine Marilyns, 1962
Acrylic, silkscreen ink and graphite on canvas
81 1/2 x 33 3/4 inches (207 x 85.7 cm)
Sotheby’s NYC: 15 November 2021
USD 47,373,000

ANDY WARHOL
Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982
Metallic pigment, acrylic, silkscreen ink and urine on canvas
40×40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
Christie’s New-York: 15 November 2021
USD 40,091,500

ANDY WARHOL
Elvis (Two Times), 1963
silkscreen ink and silver paint on canvas
81½ x 71⅜ inches (207 x 181.3 cm)
Sotheby’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 37,032,000

ANDY WARHOL
Muhammad Ali, 1982
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
40×40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 18,107,500

#4. Claude Monet

Turnover: USD 305,681,901
# Lots: 26
Top Lot: USD 70,353,000

 

CLAUDE MONET
Le Bassin aux Nympheas, 1917-1919
Oil on canvas
100×200 cm (39.4 x 79 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 70,353,000

CLAUDE MONET
Coin du Bassin aux Nympheas, 1918
Oil on canvas
131 x 88.8 cm (51.5 x 35 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York: 16 November 2021
USD 50,820,000

CLAUDE MONET
Waterloo Bridge Effet de Brouillard, 1903
Oil on canvas
65.7 x 100.2 cm (25.9 x 39.6 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 48,450,000

CLAUDE MONET
Le Bassin d’Argenteuil, 1874
Oil on canvas
54 x 73.2 cm (21.7 x 28.9 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 10 November 2021
USD 27,840,000

 

 

#5. Gerhard Richter

Turnover: USD 246,594,842
# Lots: 298
Top Lot: USD 33,010,500

 

GERHARD RICHTER
Abstraktes Bild, 1993
Oil on canvas
240×240 cm (94.5 x 94.5 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York: 15 November 2021
USD 33,010,500

GERHARD RICHTER
Abstraktes Bild, 1988
Acrylic, charcoal, and pastel on linen
200×181 cm (79×71 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 27,185,000

GERHARD RICHTER
Abstraktes Bild, 1992
Oil on canvas
200×160 cm (79×63 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 23,244,000

GERHARD RICHTER
Abstraktes Bild 747-1, 1992
Oil on canvas
200×200 cm (79×79 inches)
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 30 November 2021
HKD 140,400,000 / USD 18,019,498

 

#6. Zhan Daqian

Turnover: USD 240,252,191
# Lots: 467
Top Lot: USD 30,691,153

 

 

#7. Vincent van Gogh

Turnover: USD 235,361,570
# Lots: 24
Top Lot: USD 71,350,000

 

VINCENT VAN GOGH
Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cypres, 1889
Oil on canvas
45.5 x 60.3 cm (17.9 x 23.8 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 71,350,000

VINCENT VAN GOGH
Jeune homme au bleuet, 1890
Oil on canvas
40.5 x 32 cm (16 x 12.6 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 46,732,500

VINCENT VAN GOGH
Meules de ble, 1888
Gouache, watercolor, pen and black ink over pencil on paper
48.5 x 60.4 cm (19 x 23.8 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 35,855,000

VINCENT VAN GOGH
Le Pont de Trinquenaille, 1888
Oil on canvas
65×81 cm (25.5 x 31.7 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 35,400,000

 

#8. BANKSY

Turnover: USD 205,850,311
# Lots: 1,186
Top Lot: USD 25,426,401

 

BANKSY
Love Is In the Bin, 2018
Spray-paint and acrylic on canvas mounted on board framed by the artist
142×78 cm (60 x 30.8 inches)
Sotheby’s London: 14 October 2021
USD 25,457,340

BANKSY
Game Changer, 2020
Oil on canvas
91×91 cm (35 7/8 x 35 7/8 inches)
Christie’s London: 23 March 2021
GBP 16,758,000 / USD 23,210,00
ALL PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT NHS

BANKSY
Sunflowers from Petrol Station, 2005
Oil on canvas in artist’s frame
102.6 x 87.5 cm (40 5/8 x 34 3/8 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 9 November 2021
USD 14,558,000

 

#9. Cy Twonbly

Turnover: USD 182,820,148
# Lots: 87
Top Lot: USD 58,863,000

 

CY TWOMBLY
Untitled, 2007
Acrylic and crayon on wood panel in six parts
99 1/4 x 217 1/2 inches (252.1 x 552.5 cm)
Sotheby’s New-York: 15 November 2021
USD 58,863,000

CY TWOMBLY
Untitled (Rome), 1970
Oil based house paint and wax crayon on canvas
61 x 76 3/4 inches (154.9 x 194.9 cm)
Sotheby’s New-York: 12 May 2021
USD 41,628,000

CY TWOMBLY
Untitled, 1961
Oil, wax crayon, graphite, and colored pencil on canvas
78 3/8 x 90 3/4 inches (199.1 x 230.5 cm)
Christie’s New-York: 10 November 2021
USD 32,000,000

 

#10 Yayoi Kusama

Tunover: USD 178,196,157
# Lots: 778
Top Lot: USD 8,026,634

 

YAYOI KUSAMA
Pumpkin [LPASG], 2013
Acrylic on canvas
160.3 x 160.3 cm
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 30 November 2021
HKD 62,540,000 / USD 8,026,798

YAYOI KUSAMA
A-PUMPKIN SKLO, 2013
Acrylic on canvas
130.3 x 162 cm (51.3 x 63.8 inches)
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 23 May 2021
HKD 50,650,000 / USD 6,522,775

YAYOI KUSAMA
Nets Obsession, 2004
Acrylic on canvas
162.3 x 162.3 cm (63.9 x 63.9 inches)
Phillips Hong-Kong: 8 June 2021
USD 3,306,743

YAYOI KUSAMA
Gold Sky Nets, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
112 x 145.5 cm (44.1 x 57.3 inches)
Seoul Auction: 26 October 2021
USD 3,125,309

 

9. Selected New Artist’s Records

---

 

#1. Gustave Caillebotte

GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE
Jeune homme a sa fenetre, 1876
Oil on canvas
116×81 cm (45.6 x 31.9 inches)
Christie’s New-York: 11 November 2021
USD 53,030,000

#2. Frida Kahlo

FRIDA KAHLO
Diego y yo, 1949
Oil on Masonite
30 x 22.4 cm (11.6 x 8.8 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York: 16 November 2021
USD 34,883,000

The self-portrait was the most recurrent genre in Frida Kahlo’s short but intense pictorial production: she painted herself three times in the 1920s, twenty times in the subsequent decade, twenty more in the 1940s, and finally five times in the years before her death in 1954. Altogether, a third of all her oeuvre are self-portraits—notwithstanding several more in which her presence, while not explicit, was either metaphorical or symbolic. Contrary to the oft-repeated legend, Frida Kahlo did not become a painter because she was bedridden after a devastating accident in her youth. Kahlo’s artistic vocation arose in childhood and was nurtured in the bosom of her nuclear family, fostered by a father who was a renowned photographer and an amateur painter. It was in this intimate context that Frida had her first aesthetic encounter with portraiture and self-portraiture: observing the physiognomy of the clients who posed for Don Guillermo Kahlo and to whose images it was necessary to add minute details illuminated by hand. The young girl devoted herself to the task of photographic retouching which required a diligent inquisitive gaze. As her father’s favorite model and subject, Frida would have learned to pose for the camera lens, and observe how Guillermo Kahlo himself executed dozens of self-portraits, attempting to get the camera to capture the dimension of his personality that he was interested in projecting.

#3. Pierre Soulages

PIERRE SOULAGES
Peinture 195 x 130 cm, 4 août 1961
Oil on canvas
195×130 cm (77×51 inches)
Sotheby’s New-York: 16 November 2021
USD 20,141,700

A powerfully magistral and stunningly dramatic expression of the primacy of paint, Peinture 195 x 130 cm, 4 août 1961 thrillingly attests to the incomparable innovation and absolute mastery of expression that have come to define the inimitable praxis of Pierre Soulages. Dating to a moment of intense creative production widely considered to be the pinnacle of the artist’s prolific career, the present work demonstrates the increasingly gestural and visually dynamic mode that emerged in his output from the late 1950s and early 60s. Further distinguished by its exquisite palette, this canvas is one of fewer than ten truly red masterworks Soulages completed, of which only three are executed on a comparable scale, marking Peinture 195 x 130 cm, 4 août 1961 as exceptionally rare.

#4. Peter Doig

 

PETER DOIG
Swamped, 1990
Oil on canvas
77 1/2 x 95 inches (197×241 cm)
Christie’s New-Yok: 9 November 2021
USD 39,862,500

 

#5. BANKSY

BANKSY
Love Is In the Bin, 2018
Spray-paint and acrylic on canvas mounted on board framed by the artist
142×78 cm (60 x 30.8 inches)
Sotheby’s London: 14 October 2021
USD 25,457,340

Undermining the establishment has always been at the heart of Banksy’s work, indeed, taking the artworld down a peg or two has particular currency in his imagery and ideology. It should therefore have come as no surprise that Banksy would mastermind perhaps the most extraordinary and elaborate feat of artistic subterfuge in recent history: the moment Girl with Balloon ‘self-destructed’ at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 5th October 2018. But of course, this wasn’t an act of destruction, it was a moment of creation – a metamorphosis that transformed Banksy’s Girl with Balloon into an entirely new work of art.

 

Hidden within the ornate gilded frame surrounding Banksy’s famous spray-painted image was a shredding mechanism that began whirring and beeping as soon as Oliver Barker hammered down the gavel on the winning £1,042,000 bid: a gobsmacked, audience looked on as the canvas began to pass through the frame in neatly cut strips. In the days and weeks that followed Banksy’s shredded canvas became a cultural phenomenon: 30,000 news stories ensued globally, and the infamous painting became the subject of memes, political cartoons, protest placards, fridge magnets and t-shirts, to name only a few imaginative uses. Banksy’s Instagram increased by 1 million followers overnight as the artist’s series of short films documenting Girl with Balloon’s journey from studio to auction block shed some light on the machinations behind the now notorious event; and in the meantime, responding to a seemingly endless stream of press inquiries, Sotheby’s stated they had been well and truly ‘Banksy-ed’. Despite the speculation, Sotheby’s was entirely unaware of and uninvolved in Banksy’s plan – why, indeed, would an artist so focused on undermining the establishment collude with them? Following the auction, Pest Control – Banksy’s studio and authentication body – swiftly issued a new certificate and thereafter Sotheby’s opened its doors to no less than 5,000 visitors over the course of a rainy October weekend, all of whom had queued long stretches of time, as well as New Bond Street, to see the newly titled Love is in the Bin.