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A biting example of Banksy’s satirical oeuvre, Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia is a double-sided composition boasting two of the artist’s most famous images: Girl with Balloon and Morons. On the recto, Girl with Balloon depicts a young girl extending her hand toward a red heart-shaped balloon, carried away by the wind. To the reverse, a crowd of art collectors is shown gathered around an auctioneer who, mid-performance, gestures toward a large, gilt-framed canvas. When held up to light, Girl with Balloon and Morons Sepia magically fuse into a single composition, transporting the young girl into the sale room, and creating a mirror effect between her extended arm and that of the auctioneer. Forming part of an edition of 8 works, the present work is nonetheless rendered unique by the artist’s spray painting of the young girl’s figure to the front of the work – a feat that distinguishes it from Banksy’s other editions of Girl with Balloon and Morons.
Girl with Balloon
First developed in 2002 and 2006 respectively, Girl with Ballon and Morons have, as independent images, become laden with meaning. The former, initially devised as a stencil mural, was exhibited in such public and political spaces as Waterloo Bridge and the West Bank barrier. Its portrayal of a young girl reaching for – or releasing – a drifting balloon spurred a number of interpretations relating to one’s inevitable loss of childhood and innocence.
Detail of the present lot Recognised as one of the artist’s foremost symbols for more than a decade, and voted the nation’s favourite artwork in 2017, the image once again came to the forefront of the public’s attention in 2018, when a 2006 framed copy of the artwork came to auction and sold for a record price. Adding further momentum to the event, the work began self-destructing just a few moments after the closing bid, by means of a concealed mechanical paper shredder Banksy had built into the frame bottom. Marking auction history with an unprecedented performative quality, Girl with Balloon became an icon for the unpredictable developments of contemporary markets, whilst simultaneously entering the realm of popular culture.
Morons Sepia
“All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They've been used to start revolutions and to stop wars.”
— BanksySimilarly quoting the environment and corporate fabric of the auction world, Morons was published as a set of six prints on the occasion of Banksy’s important and characteristically controversial warehouse exhibition Barely Legal, which took place in Los Angeles in 2006. In the now iconic image, an auctioneer commands a sale room packed with bidders, immortalising the historical 1987 sale that saw Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers yield a price of £22,500,000 – a record for any work at auction at the time. Among the works on display, a large canvas to the right of the composition stands out, reading the words ‘I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU MORONS ACTUALLY BUY THIS SHIT’. Devising a facetious critique of the art world – one that Banksy has become known and revered for – the artist paradoxically turns his own creative gesture into a reproducible image, one that, in Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia, constitutes half of the work’s iconographic value.
Detail of the present lot Punchy Critique
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”
— BanksyControversial yet packed with punchy humour, Banksy's works have always poked fun at the art establishment, undercutting the elite within the industry. In the earlier days of Banksy’s creative career, the artist organised street interventions and museum incursions. Between March and May 2005, Banksy had snuck his way into four of New York’s elite cultural institutions: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and also London’s British Museum. Hijacking these world-renowned public spaces, Banksy displayed his own parodic, ‘vandalised’ versions of old master paintings on the walls: Mona Lisa wearing a smiley face mask; an admiral clutching a spray can in front of anti-war graffiti, to name a few.Together, Morons Sepia and Girl with Balloon form a joint critique of the art world, specifically on the auction market, irreverently contributing to the artist’s overarching political stance. As such, the work epitomises Banksy’s ability to propel his infamous urban vernacular to the realm of high art. ‘This is the first time the essentially bourgeois world of art has belonged to the people’, he mused. ‘We need to make it count’.i
Collector’s Digest
With his popularity, Banksy has established himself as a widespread cultural phenomenon with an air of mystique as he continues to keep a stealth status. Despite remaining anonymous, Banksy was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010, alongside Barack Obama and Steve Jobs.
Revolutionising the way street art is perceived and redefining ‘art’ itself, works by Banksy can be found in prestigious public collections including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. With a massive following of over 10 million on Instagram, Banksy is the world’s most renowned mystery man, and a trailblazer that continues to catapult the art historical cannon in new directions.
i Bansky, quoted in Will Ellsworth-Jones, ‘The Story Behind Banksy’, Smithsonian Mag, February 2013, online
Provenance
Hang Up Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present ownerArtist Biography
Banksy
British • 1975 - N/A
Anonymous street artist Banksy first turned to graffiti as a miserable fourteen year old disillusioned with school. Inspired by the thriving graffiti community in his home city, Bristol, Banksy's works began appearing on trains and walls in 1993, and by 2001 his blocky, spray-painted works had cropped up all over the United Kingdom. Typically crafting his images with spray paint and cardboard stencils, Banksy is able to achieve a meticulous level of detail. His aesthetic is clean and instantly readable due to his knack for reducing complex political and social statements to simple visual elements.
His graffiti, paintings and screenprints use whimsy and humour to satirically critique war, capitalism, hypocrisy and greed — with not even the Royal family safe from his anti-establishment wit.
Ο◆25
Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia
signed, numbered and dated 'BANKSY 07 3/8' lower right
double-sided work on paper
Girl with Balloon: spray paint on paper
Morons Sepia: screenprint on paper
56.5 x 76 cm. (22 1/4 x 29 7/8 in.)
Executed in 2007, this work is number 3 from an edition of 8, and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Pest Control.
Estimate
HK$4,500,000 - 6,500,000
€553,000-799,000
$577,000-833,000
Sold for HK$5,670,000
Charlotte Raybaud
Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
+852 2318 2026
CharlotteRaybaud@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in association with Yongle
Hong Kong Auction 1 December 2022
1
Michaela Yearwood-Dan
What's the Use in Yearning
Estimate HK$250,000 - 350,000
Sold for HK$3,024,000
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2
Derek Fordjour
Single Pivot Turn
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$4,032,000
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4
Lucy Bull
Giving Tree
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$4,662,000
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5
Christina Quarles
I Can Only Feel Whut Touches Me
Estimate HK$900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$2,772,000
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6
Julien Nguyen
Faust II
Estimate HK$900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$3,528,000
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7
Loie Hollowell
Split Orbs in gray-brown, yellow, purple and carmine
Estimate HK$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for HK$12,350,000
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8
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (774-1)
Estimate HK$80,000,000 - 120,000,000
Sold for HK$89,375,000
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9
William Monk
Far-Out III
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$2,520,000
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10
Damien Hirst
Forgiven
Estimate HK$6,000,000 - 9,000,000
Sold for HK$7,510,000
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11
Huang Yuxing
River
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$2,142,000
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12
Yayoi Kusama
INFINITY-NETS (GMBKA)
Estimate HK$12,000,000 - 18,000,000
Sold for HK$12,592,000
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13
Lee Ufan
From Point No. 77103
Estimate HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for HK$7,207,500
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14
Zao Wou-Ki
14.10.69.
Estimate HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for HK$11,745,000
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15
Yayoi Kusama
Gold Accumulation (1)
Estimate HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for HK$9,930,000
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16
Chiharu Shiota
State of Being (Boy’s Kimono)
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$1,638,000
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17
Javier Calleja
Once in Life
Estimate HK$2,700,000 - 3,800,000
Sold for HK$4,410,000
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18
Izumi Kato
Untitled
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$4,410,000
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19
Michaël Borremans
The Butter Sculptor
Estimate HK$2,800,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for HK$2,898,000
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20
Michaël Borremans
The Assistant
Estimate HK$3,200,000 - 4,200,000
Sold for HK$3,402,000
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21
Yoshitomo Nara
Nachtwandern
Estimate HK$16,000,000 - 25,000,000
Sold for HK$19,005,000
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22
Yoshitomo Nara
Flying Nun
Estimate HK$3,800,000 - 5,800,000
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23
KAWS
HOT SEAT JUNCTION
Estimate HK$7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for HK$8,599,000
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24
This lot is no longer available.
25
Banksy
Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia
Estimate HK$4,500,000 - 6,500,000
Sold for HK$5,670,000
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26
Banksy
Kids on Guns
Estimate HK$8,500,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for HK$7,147,000
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27
Caroline Walker
The Masquerade
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$3,906,000
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28
Trey Abdella
Sunny Days
Estimate HK$700,000 - 900,000
Sold for HK$3,024,000
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29
André Butzer
Untitled
Estimate HK$600,000 - 800,000
Sold for HK$1,701,000
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30
This lot is no longer available.
31
Louise Bonnet
The Swimmer
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for HK$2,520,000
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32
Sarah Slappey
Black Pearls II
Estimate HK$300,000 - 500,000
Sold for HK$1,008,000
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33
Ayako Rokkaku
Untitled
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$2,394,000
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34
Brett Crawford
3MO SUPPORT
Estimate HK$600,000 - 800,000
Sold for HK$2,016,000
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35
Raghav Babbar
Off Duty
Estimate HK$150,000 - 250,000
Sold for HK$5,040,000
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