Azediized
Have you ever heard of Banksy? Well, Banksy is the pseudonym of a British urban artist who hides his identity. This artist is famous all around the world for his work that mix humour and politic but also for all the scandals that he caused by his provocations. But I guess you’re asking yourself why I am talking about this guy. Don’t worry, we’re getting to the point.
Did you hear about a canvas that self-destructed during an auction in October 2018? Well, this was a trick from our friend Banksy. Indeed, this evening, a lot of people were assembled at Sotheby’s in London to acquire the coveted canvas. This artwork is a reproduction of one of Banksy’s most famous masterpieces, “Girl with Balloon” where you can see a heart-shaped balloon fly away from a young girl. This canvas is finally auctioned off for 1,042 million£ (1,185 million€). Not even the time to breathe after this acquisition, half of the canvas is cut in slivers by a grinder inside the frame, in front of the crowd stunned. But the funny thing about this situation is that instead of losing value, this canvas with its grinder is considered even more precious.
Obviously, the artist did not fail to share a picture of the half-destroyed artwork on his Instagram page followed by the caption (Going, going, gone…) to make fun of the situation (laughable I must say).
An auction sale is the action of selling an artwork (canvas, statues, drawings…) at a specific date. The organisms that organize these sales put an announcement to attracts buyers (usually collectors but museums are more and more involved in this kind of transactions). The goal is to sell to the highest bidder and the artworks sold are chosen very carefully. Indeed, the price of an artwork depends on various factors:
- The size
- The quality
- The reputation of the artist
- The date of creation
- The date of the sale
- The condition of the artwork
- The exchange rates
But does it mean that an artwork from a famous artist will imperatively be sold for an outrageous sum of money? Not really as Banksy show us again. Indeed, in 2013, he installed an outlet near Central Park where he sold about twenty of his artworks authentic and signed for only 60$ where an auction house would have sold it for millions of dollars. What some person could see as another mischief from the artist show nevertheless the limits of the art market. Indeed, no matter the reputation of the artist, if the person who buy or sell it does not know the value of the artwork, the price won’t be that high. Then, the value of an artwork is it really determined by the reputation and the quality or rather by the persons it belongs to and their own estimation?
Making sense of art and design industries 