Banksy bike art sold for ‘six figures’
Nottingham piece was removed from the wall it was found on
Photo by:
Banksy/Instagram
In October 2020, Banksy, a renowned British street artist claimed a pieced of art outside of Avi Hair & Beauty Salon in Nottingham, England.
On Wednesday afternoon the mural was sold for ‘six figures’, according to the BBC.
Fatima’s bike
Banksy’s Instagram post about the art originally referenced a controversial British government run poster campaign. The advertisements suggested people like a ballerina named Fatima should ‘Rethink. Reskill. Reboot.’ and train for a new job in tech.
The mural depicts a girl hula-hooping with a bike tire next to an old chained up bike. The silver bike is missing its rear wheel, and the tire the girl uses to hula-hoop matches the front tire of the old commuter.
Theft panic
Days after the mural was put up, the saddle of the bike was stolen.
Oh #Nottingham , never change ? #Banksy pic.twitter.com/blFI4zLxPq
— Neil Blake ? (@NMBLAKE) October 15, 2020
The next month the entire bike went missing, prompting what was likely an unprecedented amount of panic over a missing broken commuter bike. As it turns out, the reports of theft were incorrect. The Nottingham Project, a group with plans to rejuvenate the Nottingham city centre, were pleased to announced that the bike was removed for “safe keeping”.
Street art to gallery art
On Feb. 17, around 5:00 GMT, residents reported a “slab of brick” was cut from the wall and the Banksy piece was removed. Gallery owner John Brandler told the BBC that he paid a “six-figure sum” for the piece. He plans to preserve it and put it on display.
Local shop-owner Alex Mitchell-Messam said he was sad to see the artwork go. “It was great, bringing new faces to the area and having a vibrant effect,” he told the BBC.
Nottingham resident Jasinya Powell also expressed her disappointment at the artwork being sold. “It’s capitalism at its finest – it’s all about the Benjamins at the end of the day,” she told the BBC. “It got people talking about Raleigh, about Nottingham, about what the city has produced and done.”
