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Banksy banks a record £102,000
Last updated at 18:07pm on 07.02.07
Ballerina With Action Man Parts
The sale record at auction for a work by guerrilla artist Banksy was smashed when a controversial anti-war picture was sold for six figures.
Bombing Middle England, a work of acrylic and spray paint on canvas, fetched £102,000 at Sotheby's contemporary art sale at Olympia.
• See a gallery of Banksy's controversial artwork here!
The picture, which depicts three elderly women throwing grenades as if they were playing lawn bowls, had a £50,000 estimate.
Commissioned by its private seller in 2001, it was purchased by a mystery buyer.
The sale confirms 31-year-old Banksy's status as the auction world's unlikeliest new star. His previous auction sale record was £62,500, set at Bonhams in October.
Other pieces by the reclusive artist sold today included Bomb Hugger, a trademark spray paint stencil portraying a young girl clutching a missile to her chest.
It fetched £31,200, more than £6,000 above its highest estimate.
Balloon Girl made £37,200, almost four times its £10,000 estimate.
However, another Banksy work, Precision Bombing - which has the rare distinction of having been signed on the reverse by the artist - failed to sell.
Tomorrow, Sotheby's will sell three more works by Banksy, including Ballerina With Action Man Parts, a painted resin figure of a dancer wearing a gas mask.
Last year, Banksy's take on Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was sold at Sotheby's Olympia for £57,600, while his six prints of model Kate Moss - portrayed in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe series - realised £50,400 at the same sale.
