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Banksy and Bono dial £29m for Aids
Evening Standard 15 Feb 2008A distorted British phone box by Banksy was sold in a night of frenzied bidding to help raise more than £29 million for charity.
Vandalised Phone Box - sold to an unknown bidder - was one of the centrepieces of last night's celebrity-studded Valentine's Day auction in New York, which raised money for HIV/Aids relief programmes in Africa.
U2 lead singer Bono, who arrived at the "Love" themed auction with wife Ali Hewson, helped set sale records for 17 artists, including Howard Hodgkin and Keith Tyson at Manhattan's Gagosian Gallery.
"Tonight we got serious about love, and not just the love of art, but the love of our brothers and sisters suffering from Aids in the poorest places on the planet," Bono said.
Model Christy Turlington showed she had a keen eye for art as well as fashion, buying Francesco Clemente's Red Flower On Scorched Earth for £85,000.
