Turf War
Medium: Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Year: 2003
Sheet: 48×35 cm (18 7/8 x 13 5/8 inches)
Edition: 750 (of which 150 signed)
Publisher: Pictures on Walls
A pivotal piece in Banksy’s provocative oeuvre, Turf War was the centerpiece of the artist’s bold eponymous second solo exhibition, which marked his breakthrough, taking the British art scene by storm in July 2003. Encompassing the anti-establishment wit and satirical humor integral to the very best of Banksy’s output, the present work depicts a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill on a colossal scale. Churchill is a figure iconized by many for his successful premiership that played a part in Britain’s triumph in the Second World War and criticized by others for his fervently monarchist and imperialist views.
While clearly referencing Yousuf Karsh’s instantly recognizable portrait of Churchill that once became emblematic of British defiance against fascism, Turf War – executed on canvas in Banksy’s signature stenciled style – subverts the pathos of the original image by portraying the British political icon with a green mohican made from turfed grass. Born out of Banksy’s rebellious visual language, this irreverent depiction continues to hijack the physical and conceptual spaces that, in Banksy’s own words, do not belong to him, unsettling the social order upheld by an elite class. Once displayed in a former East London warehouse alongside strikingly controversial exhibits, such as live animals painted as police and concentration camp inmates, Turf War was at the heart of an ephemeral, surrealist three-day happening that, much like Banksy’s famous self-shredding work, became a cultural phenomenon. The show’s legendarily bold absurdism, brazen humor and mischief are perfectly encapsulated in this work, cementing Banksy, as far as the elusiveness of his persona allows, as an undaunted social commentator and one of the most significant artist of our time.
INSTALLATION VIEW OF BANKSY’S TURF WAR EXHIBITION IN LONDON, 2003. / ARTWORK: © BANKSY
By amalgamating multiple visual references into a powerful postmodern image, Turf War draws not only upon the iconic photograph of Churchill but also on the famous image of the statesman’s statue transformed as part of Guerrilla Gardening by ‘Reclaim The Street’ in Parliament Square on May Day 2000.
BANKSY (b. 1974)
Turf War, 2003
Oil and emulsion on canvas
254.5 x 254.5 cm (100 1/2 x 100 1/2 inches)
A protester was sentenced to thirty days in prison for defacing the statue by placing a turf mohican on Churchill’s head, applying red paint to give an illusion that blood was dripping from his mouth and covering the plinth in graffiti. The sanctioning of the protester’s act by the state resonates with the illicit element of Banksy’s own graffiti, which often generated a quick police response in his native Bristol in the 1990s. In order to create his renegade site-specific work, nodding at Warhol’s Pop-art portraits and ready-mades, the artist prioritised speed in his creative process, developing his staple stenciling technique that allowed him to make his public interventions lightning-quick. Thus, the retained graphic sensibility continues to channel Banksy’s protest energy outside and inside the gallery. The evocation of stencilling with the implied possibility of instant reproduction allows Banksy to further probe the notion of authority, which heavily relies on repetition that leaves us vulnerable to endorsing messages imposed upon us from outside. By emulating the very mechanism of power, Banksy mounts a challenge to the political establishment for which Churchill can be seen as the ultimate symbol. This critique is further galvanised by the ironic use of the mohican hairstyle—a significant motif in Banksy’s arsenal, previously appearing in his 1997 graffiti depicting the ex-Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
STATUE OF WINSTON CHURCHILL COVERED BY GRAFFITI AND A TURF MOHICAN DURING AN ANTI-CAPITALIST DEMONSTRATION, LONDON 2000 / IMAGE: © JOHN STILLWELL / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
The punk-style mohican added to the iconic portrait achieves more than a straight-from-the-shoulder mockery of the British political icon through the aesthetic of the subcultures that historically challenged the establishment ideals. As evidenced in a 2009 work IKEA Punk, Banksy draws on this trope to explore the commercialization and paradoxical homogenization of subculture aesthetics. The rebellion of Turf War does not, therefore, subscribe to an existing rebellion, but rather invokes paradox, disjunction and negation, to highlight ephemeral modern culture’s failure to transcend destruction and injustice. As Will Gompertz remarks, “Banksy makes art that, as Hamlet said, holds ‘…the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure’”
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL MAKING A SPEECH ON HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY AT WESTMINSTER HALL, LONDON
IMAGE: © POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
A compelling, nonconformist voice in contemporary British art and one of the great social commentators of our time, Banksy subverts the language of art history by breaking down the boundaries between graphic and fine art, the street and the gallery, the whimsical and the controlled, the humorous and the earnest. Channelling a powerful current of rebel activity in the art world since the turn of the millennium, when political agitation was viewed by the artist as hopelessly naive, Banksy’s incessant creative remixing of symbols and illumination of paradox have critiqued institutional order brilliantly and with fresh force. As deployed tremendously in Turf War, Banksy is a master of conjuring ambiguity and bemusement as the ultimate tactic for challenging the power structures of contemporary life in the art world and beyond.
Auction Market Overview
Turf War (unsigned)
| 2025 |
Sold Twice
Average Price: GBP 9,240 (USD 12,423)
Top Price: GBP 9,900 (USD 12,265) @ Forum Auctions on 15 October 2025 |
| 2024 |
Sold Twice
Average Price: GBP 11,920 (USD 14,900)
Top Price: GBP 13,120 (USD 16,400) @ Roseberys London on 23 April 2024 |
| 2023 |
Sold Twice
Average Price: GBP 14,920 (USD 14,900)
Top Price: GBP 20,000 (USD 24,895) @ Tate Ward Auctions on 7 June 2023 |
| 2022 |
Sold Twice
Average Price: GBP 31,680 (USD 41,655)
Top Price: GBP 32,160 (USD 39,555) @ Forum Auctions on 19 July 2022 |
| 2021 |
Sold Twice
Average Price: GBP 31,175 (USD 43,045)
Top Price: JPY 4,830,000 (USD 44,745 / GBP 32,100) @ SBI Art Auction on 24 April 2021 |
| 2020 |
Sold Twice
Average Price: GBP 54,940 (USD 73,073)
Auction Record Price: GBP 64,320 (USD 84,905) @ Forum Auctions on 4 September 2020 |
Turf War (unsigned)
2026 Auction Results
Burstow & Hewett: 26 February 2026
Estimated: GBP 5,000 – 8,000
GBP 5,400 (Hammer)
GBP 6,696 / USD 9,115
BANKSY (born 1974)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Color screen print
Numbered 384/750
Phillips London: 22 January 2026
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 9,675 / USD 13,015
BANKSY
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Numbered 154/750 in pencil
An unsigned impression
(the edition was 150 signed and 600 unsigned impressions)
Published by Pictures on Walls, London
2025 Auction Results
Forum Auctions: 15 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 7,500 (Hammer)
GBP 9,900 / USD 13,265
BANKSY (b.1974)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in green and black on wove paper
Numbered from the edition of 750 in pencil
Karl & Faber: 6 June 2025
Estimated: EUR 10,000 – 15,000
EUR 10,160 / USD 11,580 / GBP 8,580
BANKSY
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Colored serigraph on wove paper
One of 750 numbered copies
With the artist’s copyright stamp lower right
2024 Auction Results
Forum Auctions: 30 April 2024
Estimated: GBP 10,000 – 15,000
GBP 8,000 (HAMMER)
GBP 10,720 / USD 13,400
BANKSY (b.1974)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in green and black on wove paper
Numbered from the edition of 750 in pencil
Rosebery’s London: 23 April 2024
Estimated: GBP 11,000 – 15,000
GBP 13,120 / USD 16,400
BANKSY (b. 1974)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors on wove
Numbered 293/750 in pencil, with copyright Banksy mark
2023 Auction Results
Wright Chicago: 8 August 2023
Estimated: USD 12,000 – 15,000
USD 12,600 / GBP 9,890
BANKSY (b.1975)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors
Printed signature to lower right ‘©banksy’
This work is apart from the edition of 750
Published by Pictures on Walls, London
Tate Ward Auctions: 7 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 18,000
GBP 20,000 / USD 24,895
BANKSY (British 1974-)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Numbered from an edition of 750 in pencil
2022 Auction Results
Forum Auctions: 19 July 2022
Estimated: GBP 24,000 – 32,000
GBP 32,160 / USD 39,555
BANKSY
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Numbered from an edition of 750 in pencil
Roseberys: 8 March 2022
Estimated: GBP 22,000 – 28,000
GBP 31,200 / USD 43,748
BANKSY
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Numbered from an edition of 750 in pencil
2021 Auction Results
Bonhams London: 22 September 2021
Estimated: GBP 25,000 – 35,000
GBP 30,250 / USD 41,345
BANKSY (British, born 1974)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors on wove
Numbered 397/750 in pencil
Published by Pictures on Walls, London
SBI Art Auction: 24 April 2021
Estimated: JPY 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
JPY 4,830,000 / USD 44,745 / GBP 32,100
BANKSY
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint
Numbered and printed copyright on the lower right
From the edition of 750
2020 Auction Results
Forum Auctions: 7 December 2020
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 38,000 (Hammer)
GBP 50,920 / USD 67,725
BANKSY (b.1974)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors
Numbered from the edition of 750 in pencil
Printed and published by Pictures on Walls, London
Forum Auctions: 27 October 2020
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 44,000 (Hammer)
GBP 58,960 / USD 78,420
AUCTION RECORD FOR TURF WAR (UNSIGNED)
BANKSY (b.1974)
Turf War (unsigned), 2003
Screenprint in colors
Numbered from the edition of 750 in pencil
Printed and published by Pictures on Walls, London
Turf War (signed)
Turf War (signed) sold once at auction in 2024, on 1 May 2024, at Bonhams London, for GBP 40,960 (USD 51,200). It last sold at auction at Forum Auctions on 27 October 2020, for GBP 110,200 (USD 143,740).
Bonhams London: 1 May 2024
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 40,960 / USD 51,200
BANKSY (British, born 1974)
Turf War (signed), 2003
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Signed and dated in black ink, numbered 59/750 and inscribed ‘DN’ in pencil
Forum Auctions: 27 October 2020
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 110,200 / USD 143,740
BANKSY
Turf War (signed), 2003
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Signed in black ink and numbered from the edition of 750
