Banksy’s Show Me the Monet sells for US$9.9 million to an Asian private collector

Show Me the Monet, Banksy’s take on Monet’s The Water-Lily Pond, sold for nearly £7.6 million, the second highest price paid for work by the mystery artist

Sotheby’s said five collectors battled for nearly nine minutes to drive the final price beyond its estimate of £3-£5 million

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Show Me the Monet, which sold at auction for nearly US$10 million, transforms Monet’s The Water-Lily Pond – depicting a Japanese-style bridge in a garden – into a modern-day fly-tipping spot. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:17pm, 22 Oct 2020Updated: 4:25pm, 22 Oct 2020

An Asian private collector has bought an oil painting by British street artist Banksy parodying a Claude Monet masterpiece for £7.6 million (US$9.9 million), the second highest price paid at auction for a work by the mysterious artist.

Show Me the Monet, a modern take on Monet’s impressionist classic The Water-Lily Pond, sold for £7,551,600 at a Sotheby’s London auction on Wednesday following a bidding battle.

“The hammer came down after five determined collectors battled for nearly nine minutes to drive the final price beyond its estimate of £3 million-£5 million to become the second highest price for the artist at auction,” Sotheby’s said.

The sale comes a year after a Banksy painting depicting the British parliament populated by chimpanzees smashed the record for the street artist by fetching nearly £9.9 million. On that occasion, the 2009 work, entitled Devolved Parliament, attracted a 13-minute battle between 10 different bidders.

Show Me the Monet, a modern take on Monet’s impressionist classic The Water-Lily Pond, sold for £7,551,600. Photo: AFP

Show Me the Monet was created in 2005 as part of a collection called “The Crude Oils”, and was first shown publicly in only Banksy’s second gallery exhibition.