Banksy’s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape Is Headed to Auction at Fair Warning
The painting is from the artist’s coveted “Crude Oil” series and is now on view at Tiffany & Co.’s Fifth Avenue flagship
A painting from Banksy’s celebrated “Crude Oil” series is headed to auction this month, where it is expected to sell for up to $18 million. The painting, Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape (2012), is being offered at Fair Warning and is now on view at Tiffany & Co.’s Fifth Avenue flagship store, known as The Landmark, where the invitation-only May 20 auction will also take place.
“Girl and Ballon on Found Landscape is arguably the strongest painting from the ‘Crude Oils’ series,” says Loïc Gouzer, CEO of Fair Warning. “It’s subject-simple, direct, universally legible—carries a symbolic weight that transcends the medium. In that sense, it functions as the Mona Lisa of his oeuvre: an image that distills the entire mythology of the artist into a single, unforgettable icon.”
Banksy first featured the girl with a balloon motif in a graffiti mural in London in 2002, where it had cemented legacy status by 2017, and later was at the center of a controversial auction stunt. The painting Girl with Balloon self-destructed during a live auction, only to sell years later for a whopping $25.4 million.
The British street artist was recently the subject of a Reuters investigation, which claimed to have revealed his true identity. The revelation, which stems from previous court records and police reports, names the stencil-style artist as Robin Gunningham and says he later changed his name to David Jones, although it is not clear whether he has changed it again. Banksy’s longtime lawyer Mark Stephens said the artist “does not accept that many of the details contained within your enquiry are correct,” but did not confirm or deny his identity.