Christie’s: a Banksy painting up for auction
It is called “Subject to Availability” and will be the protagonist of the sale
Christie’s auction house, after the sale of Banksy work “Game Changer” which reached £ 14.4 million, an absolute record for the artist, has decided to organize an auction on 30 June 2021 in London dedicated to 20th century art which will see another work of the artist as its protagonist, a “vandalized” oil painting.
It is called “Subject to Availability”, estimated at between 3 million and 5 million pounds: it is a Banksy intervention on the painting by the artist Albert Bierstadt, a member of the Hudson River School, which portrays the Mount Rainier National Park.
The most mysterious street artist in the world has decided to intervene on the original painting with asterisks and a comment: “subject to availability for a limited period”. The work is in fact part of a series dedicated to the theme of climate change.
“Banksy’s witty dialogue with the historical canon of art brings the painting sharply into the current context of the global climate crisis,” says Katharine Arnold of Christie’s, adding: “Ten years after its creation, the idyllic park it describes has already been closed to the public since February 2020 due to severe floods and landslides “.
The work was previously included in the solo exhibition of the artist “Banksy versus Bristol Museum” in 2009, currently the only one authorized.
Some of the works on display in that famous exhibition reached record prices, such as the painting “Devolved Parliament” which was sold at Sotheby’s in 2019 for £ 9.8 million or the version of Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait at the age of 63 at to which Banksy added a pair of googly eyes, a work sold by Phillips in 2014 for £ 398,000.
Although Banksy’s identity still remains unknown, his works have a well-documented, controlled and certified history also thanks to Pest Control, a company created by the artist himself that is responsible for authenticating and managing his works to avoid false and incorrect attributions.
And if Banksy is not caught unprepared on the subject of Archiving and Certification of works of art, the same cannot be said for many other artists.
But technology comes in support of art, because among the professional tools capable of responding to the main needs of artists, such as the management and certification of works of art, we find Art Rights, a platform that in complete privacy and security allows you to create a real Passport of works of art thanks to Blockchain technology.
