British pop star Robbie Williams auctioned three works by enigmatic artist Banksy on Wednesday. The works belong to the private collection of the 48-year-old musician, and their total value, according to Sotheby’s, is estimated at between 7-10 million pounds (about 8-12 million euros).
This includes an image of “Kissing Coppers” that first appeared on the outside wall of a Brighton pub in 2004 and showed two police officers kissing. “After repeated vandalism, the original mural was removed in 2014,” the auction house said. A copy of the 2005 picture by Banksy is now up for auction.
A copy of the “Girl with the Balloon” painted on metal will also be auctioned off. This design gained notoriety when another copy of the image was torn apart by a mechanism built into the frame at Sotheby’s auction in 2018 shortly after the bid was accepted. The third painting sold by Williams from Banksy is “Sabotaged Oils (Helicopters)”. Two armed helicopters are shown flying over a quiet area.
“L’Empire des Lumieres” by René Magritte (1898-1967) will be sold at the Evening Auction of Modern and Contemporary Art, which will also take place on Wednesday – valued at more than £45 million. It is said to have been created in 1961 for Magritte’s close friend, Baroness Anne-Marie Gilleon Croett. She was the daughter of Magritte’s patron, the Belgian surrealist collector Pierre Croett. According to the auction house, the photo has been in the family ever since.
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