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(British b. 1974)
Born in England in 1974, Banksy is an England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed. He has been active since the 1990s, and his street art images combine dark humor with graffiti, executed in a distinctive stenciling technique.
His works of political and social images have appeared on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene in England, that involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by a 3D graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.
In 2004, he created spoofs of ten-pound British notes where he replaced the Queen's head with Princess Diana's head and changed the text from Bank of England" to "Banksy of England. He also ran fifty signed posters with the same image of the notes with Diana's head to commemorate her death. These sold for a hundred pounds each. Then in 2007, that same poster sold again for 24,000 British pounds in a Bonham’s auction.
In 2005, he traveled to the Palestinian region and created nine images on the Israeli West Bank wall. This is just one example of his works around the world. His works grace walls of buildings all over the World.
In 2007, an owner of a house, with one of his murals painted on the side tried to sell his home but the deal fell through because the buyers wanted the mural to be removed. The owner of the house refused so the sale didn’t happen. After that, the owner changed his listing. He went from listing his home to listing a mural for sale with a house attached to it.
Banksy won award after award, with one successful exhibition after another; everything he touches turns to gold. He is on fire!
There was a time, not too long ago, when Banksy's artwork would sit at art galleries unsold or when they did sell, his works sold for a few hundred pounds at best. He's now forty-seven years old and today his auction results are crazy!
He's breaking auction record after auction record with record sales.