A painting by cult "guerrilla artist" Banksy has sold for £288,000 at auction - a new record for the artist.



Space Girl and Bird, which sold for 20 times its estimate, was commissioned by Blur for their Think Tank album cover.

It was sold to a telephone bidder from the US. Earlier, a Banksy self-portrait showing an ape's face fetched £198,000 - five times its estimated value.

The previous record for one of Banksy's works was £102,000, paid for a picture of pensioners bowling with bombs.

Banksy, from Bristol, made his name with stencilled graffiti and subversive stunts in public spaces but fiercely guards his true identity.

Banksy self portrait
Six telephone bidders battled it out to buy the self-portrait
Another two of his pieces fetched £75,000 and £32,000 during Wednesday's sale at Bonhams auction house in London.

Bonhams specialist Gareth Williams, said: "We are delighted with today's result.

"The art market for contemporary cutting edge art is booming and Banksy's work has become part of this culture."

Charles Dupplin, an art expert from insurance company Hiscox, said buyers were "fascinated" by the artist.

"Today's auction demonstrates just how much art by Banksy has skyrocketed in value. Clearly he is an artist in huge demand.

"To have the previous record set by the artist broken twice in quick succession reveals how much fascination there is in Banksy by collectors."

The value of contemporary art had increased by more than 11% in the last year, he added.

love it!

CHIC0 said:

Then check out his book. Awfully good.

I FUGGIN LURVE BANKSY

Imago said:

I love the fact no one really knows what he looks like.

I just picture a monkey when I think of him.

HamsterHuey said:

I went through that in one sitting, I just couldn't put it down.

I LOVE Banksy.

Banksy revealed!

Charlotte, is that *really* him???!

onenitealone said:

I have no idea! I just googled him and that is what I got!

ZombieKitten said:

Curses!

I thought so, you minx.

onenitealone said:

I'd never heard of him until this thread

ZombieKitten said:

thats John Prescott

LleeLlee said:

I don't know who that is either

ZombieKitten said:

You should check out his stuff - he's awesome.

And LleeLlee... Imagine if it was JP after all.

ZombieKitten said:

UK Deputy Prime Minister. Here is meeting and greeting his flock

http://www.youtube.com/wa...RQDnGTcc4A

onenitealone said:

yeah I know,

too funny!!!!!

onenitealone said:

I checked it out while I was at it some pretty cool things!

LleeLlee said:

I absolutely love that clip. Classic!

I used to have this video tape full of stuff like that. It also had Margaret Thatcher fainting during a speech and Bjork's 'Welcome To Bangkok' attack. I wish I could find it.

ZombieKitten said:

I'm glad you like it! If you can find the book, it's well worth getting.

cool

I get to hear about Banksy as i work in Bristol a bit. Did you hear about the piece accidently painted over by council? Whoops.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/h...444501.stm

Electrostar said:

Hey Jon.

Yeah, I heard about that. And the same happened in London just the other day...