What: Banksy, A girl without a balloon2018
Where: Sotheby’s London
When: October 14, 2021, Lot 7
Estimate: £4,000,000-6,000,000
Sold for: £18,582,000
Banksy wrote in his caption, ‘Gone, gone, gone…’ InstagramBelow the now infamous image of his painting The girl with the balloonHalf of the pieces hung on a salesroom wall at Sotheby’s in London. A witty appropriation of the phrase, long associated with its association with auction language, is the most appropriate tagline for Banksy’s spectacular feat of artistic subterfuge brilliantly executed on the night of October 5, 2018.
Banksy’s The girl with the balloon Contemporary was the last lot in the evening auction, consigned for sale by Banksy’s press Office At that time. Completely unaware of the impending shock, Alex Branczyk, then Senior Director and European Head of Contemporary Art, explained that Sotheby’s had complied with the consignor’s contractual requests: ‘It (the work) was on sale in the evening and should be seen during the auction’ – also, that it was shown in its original artist frame. Concealed in that ornate gilded frame surrounding Banksy’s ubiquitous spray-painted image was a remote-controlled shredding mechanism, operated by an anonymous patron in the salesroom, for the work won by auctioneer Oliver Barker to sell for £420, £402,000,000. Oliver Barker began to squirm as he hammered down the giddle.
In its final, folded state, A girl without a balloon Defies easy categorization—it endures as a profound work of conceptual art, an enduring work of performance art, and a physical object that defies the label of painting as easily as it does sculpture. It remains today, as Branczyk said after the 2018 sale, ‘the first artwork in history that was created during a live auction’.
A banana tube taped to the wall
Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian2019. Private collection. © 2025 Maurizio Cattelan (page 215) Banana and duct tape, 7⅞ × 7⅞ × 2 inches. (20 x 20 x 5 cm), installation dimensions variable.
What: Maurizio Cattelan Comedian, 2019
Where: Sotheby’s New York
When: November 20, 2024, Lot 10
Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000
Sold for: $6,240,000
‘Who’s laughing now?’ asked the rhetorical question in the headline The New York Times On November 20, 2024, he touched on irony, wit and undeniable talent in a feat achieved earlier in the evening, when Maurizio Cattelan Comedian Sold for $6,240,000 at Sotheby’s and famously held the title of world’s most expensive banana.
When Sotheby’s announced its inclusion Comedian At the Now & Contemporary evening auction, the response was immediate. A conceptual work that garnered global attention upon its debut five years ago, the artwork was offered with a bold estimate of $1-1.5 million, a head-turner in and of itself. On the evening of the sale, after minutes of competitive bidding punctuated with gasps and an air of unbridled anticipation, Comedian Realized a remarkable $6.24 million. The result confirms a continuing appetite for works that defy convention and court cultural commentary.
