Rare edition of Banksy’s Girl With Balloon up for auction for first time
- The two-part version of the UK street artist’s signature work is expected to fetch up to US$4.75 million when it goes under the hammer in London
- Unlike other iterations of the painting, the diptych depicts the little girl and her heart-shaped balloon in separate frames
A two-part version of Banksy’s Girl With Balloon painting is seen fetching up to $4.75 million when it goes under the hammer for the first time at a Christie’s auction in London later this month.
The rare edition, one of 25 created by the elusive British street artist in 2005, features a young girl in one painting and her heart-shaped balloon in another.
“It’s a pretty signature image for Banksy in that he did the first iteration of it on the streets,” said Katharine Arnold, co-head of Post-War and Contemporary Art for Christie’s in Europe, as the artwork went on display at the auction house’s London showrooms on Friday.
The Girl With Balloon first appeared on the streets of London’s Shoreditch neighbourhood in 2002, with Banksy creating versions of the painting on London’s South Bank in 2004 and at Israel’s barrier at the West Bank in 2005.
“There are some iterations of this where you see the little girl with the balloon in the tiny little format of a single canvas,” Arnold said.