A Photo of the Back of Banksy’s Head Sold for Nearly Ten Times Its Estimate at Sotheby’s London

An elusive photograph of Banksy sold for £35,000 ($43,600)
at Sotheby’s London yesterday—and it didn’t even show the anonymous
British street artist’s face.

Banksy has been famously protective of his identity over the
years, though some alleged video
interviews from early in the artist’s
career have surfaced in recent years and the prevailing theory
is that Banksy is actually one
Robin Gunningham, who,
like the artist, hails from Bristol.

Unfortunately, the portrait at Sotheby’s isn’t offering any
further clues. The image, by British photographer Chris Levine,
claims to show the back of Banksy’s head, clad in a hoodie. One of
six lots on offer in the online sale “Chris Levine: Be
Light,” the work, titled Banksy [3D],
carried a pre-sale estimate of just £3,000–5,000
($3,700–6,200).

The Art Newspaper
reports that Levine made four prints of the image, and that the
other three belong to Banksy, Levine, and the musician Robert Del
Naja.

The sale’s other lots included a photo of Kate Moss and a
2004 portrait of the UK’s Queen
Elizabeth II, Lightness of Being (2018),taken in
celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Island of Jersey
pledging allegiance to the crown. The archival inkjet print,
embellished with tiny Swarovski crystals by the artist for his
own personal collection, sold for £75,000 ($93,500), while the Kate
Moss image brought in £25,000 ($31,100).

According to the artnet Price Database, Levine’s record at
auction is £187,500 ($234,023), achieved for another print
of Lightness of Being, sold at Sothebys London in
2017. Banksy’s auction record is $1.87 million, set at Sotheby’s
New York for Keep It Spotless in 2008. But that
could be toppled this December when
Sotheby’s London sells the artist’s 2009 work Devolved
Parliament, which sees members of parliament turned into
chimpanzees, for upwards of £2 million ($2.5 million).

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Nearly Ten Times Its Estimate at Sotheby’s London appeared
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