Banksy's Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape sells for US$17.94m at Fair Warning

The Crude Oils canvas, which adds the balloon motif to a vintage pastoral scene, sold after a phone battle to an anonymous US bidder, GraffitiStreet reported. Bidding remained intense through the evening. The sale took place at Tiffany & Co.'s Landmark store in New York and matched the work's US$18m high estimate including buyer's premium.

A top-three result

The result reshuffled the artist's top three auction prices. The ranking covers publicly reported auction results including buyer's premium where applicable. Love Is in the Bin leads at £18.6m (US$25.4m), followed by Game Changer at £16.8m, which the ranking lists at US$23.2m and the sale report at US$23.1m, and Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape at US$17.94m (£13.3m). Sunflowers From Petrol Station, which fetched £10.7m (US$14.5m) at Christie's New York in 2021, dropped out of the top three. Devolved Parliament sits fifth at £9.9m (US$12.2m).

Game Changer depicts a child choosing a nurse as a superhero. It was first displayed at University Hospital Southampton and sold at Christie's London in 2021, with proceeds supporting NHS charities.

The record above it

Love Is in the Bin began as Girl with Balloon and partially shredded itself moments after the hammer fell at Sotheby's London in 2018. The canvas dropped through a hidden shredder built into the bottom of the frame. The unnamed European woman who bought it said: "At first I was shocked, but I realised I would end up with my own piece of art history."

It returned to Sotheby's London in 2021, where bidding opened at £2.5m and reached £10m within minutes before the hammer fell at £16m, or £18.5m with buyer's premium, against a £4m to £6m guide. The BBC put the total at £18.5m; GraffitiStreet and Yahoo cite £18.6m as the record. GraffitiStreet said the resale was almost twenty times its original sale price. Sotheby's contemporary art chairman Alex Branczik said the stunt "did not so much destroy an artwork by shredding it, but instead created one". Auctioneer Oliver Barker joked after the 2021 sale that he was relieved the artwork was "still there".

A stronger New York season

In the same New York season, Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips sold US$2.5 billion, more than double the US$1 billion they sold in the same period a year earlier, the New York Post reported. Christie's led with US$1.5 billion, up 116% from US$693 million last May. Sotheby's sold US$908.6 million, up 82%, and Phillips US$146 million, up 97%. Christie's alone sold US$1.1 billion on May 18.