Anonymous artist Banksy is back in the headlines following his latest creations, a series of animal-themed works that have been popping up across London. One piece, a howling wolf on a satellite dish, was quickly taken by a masked man (pictured).
Famed the world over for his stencilled murals, paintings, and sculptures that combine political and social commentary with dark humour, the mysterious graffiti artist has seen the value of his work skyrocket in recent years.
With the anonymous maverick getting richer and richer, read on to discover the 15 most expensive Banksy artworks ever sold at auction and find out how much the artist is thought to be worth today.
All dollar amounts in US dollars
Banksy has attracted a cult following over the years, including plenty of celebrity admirers. A-list collectors of his work include Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Drake, Kate Moss, Christina Aguilera, and the late George Michael. But arguably none is more devoted than Robbie Williams.
An avid fan since the early 2000s, the former Take That member sold three of his most prized Banksys at a Sotheby's London auction in 2022, including this version of the iconic Girl with Balloon.
The hitmaker, who owns an enviable collection of contemporary art, decided to part with the pieces to free up space and buy “new art from new people”, according to The Guardian.
Interpreted as a symbol of innocence and hope, the original Girl with Balloon mural appeared under Waterloo Bridge on London's Southbank in 2002 but was swiftly painted over by the local council. Banksy has since replicated the image several times, and Williams bought his version on metal directly from the artist in 2006. It sold at the 2022 Sotheby's auction for $3.7 million (£2.8m).
Girl with Balloon is arguably Banksy's most recognisable image and in 2017 it was voted Britain's favourite work of art.
It's no surprise, then, that the many versions of this masterpiece are very valuable indeed. Take this diptych, which Banksy stencilled in 2005.
In 2021, the two small canvases fetched an eye-popping $4.2 million (£3.3m) at a Christie's auction in London.
Astonishingly, the same diptych was sold by Christie's back in 2012 for a comparatively meagre $94,812 (£58,850). This goes to show the phenomenal rise in value of Banksy's artwork over the years, with a Sotheby's dealer describing him as “the quickest-growing artist anyone has ever seen of all time”.
The most valuable of the three Banksy artworks Robbie Williams put up for auction in 2022, Vandalised Oil (Choppers) (pictured far right) sold for $5.9 million (£4.6m). Incidentally, the remaining piece, a version of Kissing Coppers from 2005 (pictured centre), failed to sell.
Created in 2006, Choppers is considered one of the finest of Banksy's Vandalised oil series of paintings, which juxtapose traditional landscapes and portraits with stark graffiti and stencilled imagery.
Stencilled armed military helicopters disrupt the tranquil Claude Lorraine-style pastoral scene in Choppers, which has a strong anti-war message and is often considered a critique of the Iraq War.
Indeed, the Apache attack helicopter has been used by Banksy as a protest symbol since 2002, when Happy Chopper appeared on a wall near Old Street in London.
Taking aim at rampant consumerism, this 2006 Banksy artwork shows a group of women, seemingly transplanted from a religious devotional painting, dramatically mourning the end of a retail sale as they would the death of the Messiah.
Banksy often lampoons unbridled capitalism and the excesses of mass consumerism in the West.
At over 13 feet (4m) wide, the supersized oil painting – which was created for Banksy's Barely Legal exhibition – makes a bold statement.
Sale Ends Today certainly wasn't snapped up at a discount when it went up for auction in 2021 at Sotheby's Hong Kong; the final sale price of $6.1 million (£4.8m) was more than double the presale estimate.
Among the most admired of the Vandalised Oils series, Banksy kept his additions minimal when painting Subject to Availability.
The subversive artist merely opted to deface Albert Bierstadt’s 1890 painting of Mount Rainier National Park with an asterisk on the mountain and some corresponding graffiti in the bottom right-hand corner that reads: “*Subject to availability for a limited period only”.
Created in 2009, the blackly humorous piece is a comment on climate change and the fragility of our landscapes. Inadvertently or not, the painting also nods to the fact Mount Rainier is an active volcano and may wipe out the surrounding area during its next major eruption.
Whatever its precise meaning, Subject to Availability caused quite the stir when it came up for sale in 2021 at Christie's London. The piece fetched $6.3 million (£4.9m), just falling short of its $7 million (£5.5m) upper estimate.
One of Banksy's most potent pacifist images, Love is in the Air debuted in 2003 on the side of a garage in the Palestinian West Bank town of Beit Sahour.
The original artwork, which shows a masked militant figure getting ready to lob a bouquet of flowers instead of a Molotov cocktail or other weapon, has often been reproduced by Banksy and even appeared on the cover of his 2006 book Wall and Piece.
This canvas version from 2006 is notable because the flowers are painted rather than stencilled.
More relevant than ever given the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the peace-promoting image has fetched millions at auction. This version, for example, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong for $6.5 million (£5.1m) in 2022.
Trolley Hunters is one of two Banksy paintings that have been sold by Sotheby's London in the cryptocurrency ethereum. The picture fetched 1,607 ether, the equivalent of $6.7 million (£5m) at the time of the auction, which took place in 2021.
Like Sale Ends Today, Trolley Hunters is a caustic critique of consumerism and a comment on our reliance on mass-produced goods.
Exemplifying Banksy's wry wit, the painting depicts three primitive humans stalking a herd of shopping trolleys.
Given his general aversion to consumerism, Banksy may well be bemused by the high prices people pay for his work. He's even said he considers commercial success a mark of failure for a graffiti artist.
This version of Love is in the Air was the other Banksy lot in Sotheby's ethereum-denominated sale in 2021. The piece fetched 1,938 ether, which translated to $8.1 million (£6m).
Like the previous version featured in this round-up, this canvas was completed in 2006 and features painted rather than stencilled flowers.
The painted canvas versions sell for the biggest bucks, but prints of the Banksy classic are remarkably valuable too. They go for anything up to $600,000 (£470k), while artist proofs sell for even more.
And we're yet to arrive at the most expensive Love is in the Air. More on that soon...
A real wow-factor piece, Forgive Us Our Trespassing is Banksy's largest known non-mural work, standing an imposing 21 feet (6.4m) high.
The artist debuted the figure of a praying boy, along with the apologetic slogan, in 2010 on a wall in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The following year Banksy recreated the artwork, with some tweaks, on a 21-foot (6.4m) by 14-foot (4.3m) wood panel with the assistance of 100 students from Los Angeles' City of Angels School, who helped tag the "stained glass" church window.
Partly an appeal for forgiveness (for years of trespassing and defacing other peoples' property) and partly an irreverent ribbing of the establishment, the painting has emerged as one of Banksy's most desirable works. When it came up for auction at Sotheby's Hong Kong in 2020, Forgive Us Our Trespassing sparked a tense bidding war and sold for almost double its estimate.
In 2005, Banksy unveiled his Crude Oils series, a precursor to Vandalised Oils. The collection features 20 classic paintings that had been reimagined by the provocative artist.
The “remixed masterpieces” include Show Me The Monet, Banksy's nightmare take on French Impressionist artist Claude Monet's series of water lilies paintings.
In Banksy's version, the heavenly idyll has turned into a fly-tipping spot littered with discarded shopping trolleys and a traffic cone.
The second most expensive piece from the Crude Oils series, Show Me The Monet was sold at Sotheby's London in 2020 for $10.3 million (£8.1m).
Devolved Parliament is Banksy's largest painting on canvas. The head-turning artwork measures an impressive 14 feet (4.3m) wide and eight feet (2.4m) tall.
Painted in 2009 and exhibited at the Banksy vs. Bristol Museum exhibition that same year, the artwork replaces the MPs of the House of Commons with chimpanzees. The razor-sharp satirical piece mocks the calibre of Britain's politicians and their conduct in the chamber, which is notorious for its boisterousness.
Originally entitled Question Time, the painting was later sold to a private collector who loaned it to Bristol Museum in March 2019 complete with tweaks from Banksy and a new name, Devolved Parliament, to lambast Britain's messy exit from the EU.
The Brexit-bashing artwork went on to sell in October 2019 at Sotheby's London for $12.2 million (£9.6m), a record at the time for a work by the artist. Shortly after the sale, Banksy posted on Instagram that it was shame he no longer owned it.
Love is in the Air again. The most expensive of the versions that have come on the market, this 2006 canvas fetched $12.9 million (£10.1m) at a Sotheby's New York sale in 2021.
Marking it out as something special, the auction in May of that year was the first ever to accept payment in either US dollars or the cryptocurrencies bitcoin or ethereum. Sure enough, the buyer stumped up the payment for the painting in cryptocurrency.
The buyer obviously had more than enough crypto stashed away since the painting absolutely smashed its estimate, defying the experts, who predicted it would go for between $3 million (£2.4m) and $5 million (£3.9m).
The winning bidder turned out to be the fractional ownership platform Particle, which has preserved the physical artwork while turning it into 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs), each representing a section of the canvas and costing around $1,500 (£1.2k) a pop.
The most expensive of Banksy's Crude Oils series from 2005, Sunflowers from Petrol Station reimagines Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers as miserable and wilted cheap petrol station blooms.
Again, the painting could be interpreted as a critique of consumerism but is also seen as a droll comment on the transience of life, an amusing momento mori.
Regarded as one of street artist's most masterfully executed works, the beautifully painted piece formed part of fashion designer Sir Paul Smith's Banksy collection until 2021, when it was put up for auction with Christie's New York.
The painting sold for a whopping $14.6 million (£11.4m), though the sale price was shy of the $18 million (£14.1m) upper estimate.
Banksy showed his charitable side in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when he donated this picture to University Hospital Southampton.
The heart-warming artwork pays tribute to the heroism of the key workers in Britain's national health service (NHS). Banksy depicted a young boy playing with a nurse doll wearing a superhero cape while two toy superheroes sit on the sidelines.
After 10 months the picture was removed from the hospital, though it was replaced with a copy. With Banksy's blessing, Game Changer went up for auction at Christie's London.
It sold on 23 March 2021 for $21.4 million (£16.8m), with the proceeds going to NHS charities. Thoroughly eclipsing the highest estimate of $3.8 million (£3m), the final sale price broke the record for a Banksy artwork sold at auction, though the picture didn't hold the record for long...
Described as quite possibly the biggest prank in art history, Banksy's most expensive artwork is also his most audacious stunt.
On 5 October 2018, shockwaves rippled through Sotheby's London when an alarm sounded and the version of Girl with Balloon that had just been sold for $1.3 million (£1m) passed through a shredder concealed in the picture frame, shredding half the image. The prank stunned the art world and made headlines around the globe.
Banksy later said he'd installed the shredder years before so he could activate it remotely if the picture ever came up for auction. He added that it should have obliterated the entire image. The street artist cited Picasso when explaining the rationale behind the stunt, declaring “the urge to destroy is also a creative urge”.
The winning bidder decided to go through with the sale, and the partially destroyed picture was renamed Love is in the Bin. Sotheby's lauded the new artwork as the first to have been created live during an auction. Needless to say, the value of the piece hit the roof and much to the owner's delight, it was resold by Sotheby's on 14 October 2021 for a staggering $23.7 million (£18.6m), almost 20 times its pre-shredded price and nearly four times the presale estimate.
And what of Banksy's fortune in 2024? Estimates suggest the mystery artist is now worth at least $50 million (£39m).
Now discover the world's most valuable paintings, ranked