Has Banksy Altered His Famed Painting of British Parliamentarians as Chimps? Either Way, It Could Fetch $2.5 Million at Auction Next Month

A painting by Banksy of bickering chimpanzees in British
Parliament, created seven years before the UK voted to withdraw
from the European Union, is up for sale at Sotheby’s in October—and
the auction house hopes to capitalize on the artist’s seeming
prescience about the turmoil of British politics.

The auction house announced this
week that it will put
the painting on the block at an evening sale in London on October
3. It estimates that the work could sell for up to $2.5
million—which would be an auction record for a work by the
anonymous artist. 

But Banksy-heads online have pointed out that
the artist may have tinkered with the work in the years since
it was shown at his 2009 exhibition, “Banksy vs. Bristol
Museum.”

The original painting, known as Question Time when it
was first displayed, depicted the House of Commons illuminated by
two glowing chandeliers. In the version for sale by Sotheby’s, now
called Devolved Parliament, the lights are gone. What’s
more, a chimpanzee in the left foreground holds an upturned banana
in the original picture. Now, the banana faces the other way, like
a frown.

When reached for comment, Sotheby’s confirmed that the painting
going up for auction is indeed the same work as the one shown in
Bristol a decade ago. A representative for the company told the
New York Times
that the changes were made by the artist himself, though the
timeline for the alterations and the motives behind them are
unclear. (The painting was purchased directly from the artist by a
collector in 2011.) Sotheby’s did not mention the changes in its
catalogue for the sale.

Surface-level revisions of paintings are made by artists all the
time. Still, given Banksy’s high-profile stunt at
Sotheby’s last year, when he orchestrated the self-destruction of a
work of his that had just sold for $1.4 million, it’s tempting
to speculate that he may have something up his sleeve again.

Devolved Parliament was
again displayed at the Bristol Museum earlier this year. Its
current owner lent the work to the institution to mark the 10-year
anniversary of Banky’s
2009 survey as well as “Brexit Day,” the original deadline for
Britain’s exit from the European Union.

“Laugh now, but one day no-one will be in charge,” the artist
said on Instagram at the time.

The post Has Banksy Altered His Famed Painting of British
Parliamentarians as Chimps? Either Way, It Could Fetch $2.5 Million
at Auction Next Month appeared first on artnet News.