Bloomberg‘s Scott Reyburn delves into the details of the Urban art market–which is led by Banksy’s work:
“The days of 100 percent selling rates for Banksy are over,” Alan Montgomery, senior specialist in charge of Bonhams’s biannual Vision 21 sales, which pioneered the auction market for the artist, said in an interview. “People are being pickier. The initial excitement is over and he’s become like other artists, but there is still a market there,” he said.
Bonhams decided to give the Banksy paintings market “a bit of a gap” at its auction on July 1, said Montgomery. Three out of six paintings by the artist, valued at up to 60,000 pounds, failed at Bonhams’s urban art event in February.
Sotheby’s and Christie’s did, however, include two Banksy paintings apiece in their recent day auctions of contemporary art in London, held on June 26 and July 1 respectively.
Different versions of “Flower Thrower” sold for 43,250 pounds at Sotheby’s and 46,850 pounds at Christie’s. Twelve months earlier, the same spray-painted composition sold for 67,250 pounds at auction.
Christie’s also sold on July 1 a version of Banksy’s signed 2007 screenprint, “Morons,” satirizing the collecting world, for 4,740 pounds. In October last year, at an urban art sale held in London by Dreweatt Neate, another version of the print fetched 7,800 pounds.
“Signed Banksy prints have fallen in price between 30 to 40 percent, generic unsigned prints by as much as 80 percent,” Stephan Ludwig, chairman of Dreweatts said in an interview. “Our Banksy clients have tended to be younger people from the City, advertising and property worlds,” he said.
Banksy Works Vanish From Auctions as Demand Drops for Urban Art (Bloomberg)