An unidentified bidder bought Show Me The Monet in London. It is also the second-highest price at auction for the mysterious British artist
An oil painting by British street artist Banksy parodying a Claude Monet masterpiece sold in London on Wednesday for £7.6 million (S$13.4 million), the second-highest price at auction for the mysterious artist.
The oil on canvas work, Show Me the Monet, a modern take on Monet's impressionist classic The Water-Lily Pond, sold for £7,551,600 at Sotheby's 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 £3,000,000 to £5,000,000 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 was created in 2005, as part of a collection called, The Crude Oils, and had first been shown publicly in only Banksy's second gallery exhibition.