The Banksy artwork based on Monet's famed painting is estimated to be auctioned off for around £3-5 million
Bansky's dissident take on French painter, Claude Monet's impressionist masterpiece depicting the Japanese bridge in Giverny, Show me the Monet (2005) is the star of Sotheby's third live stream auction event on October 21 titled, ‘Modernités / Contemporary’, which will bring together two sales of modern and contemporary art held back-to-back from Paris and London.
The artwork is estimated to be around £3-5 million, and was first shown 15 years ago as part of Bansky's second gallery exhibition in West London. It remained on display for two weeks, attracting large crowds, queries and even a headline on the evening news during the opening night.
“In one of his most important paintings, Banksy has taken Monet’s iconic depiction of the Japanese bridge in the Impressionist master’s famous garden at Giverny and transformed it into a modern-day fly-tipping spot. More canal than idyllic lily pond, Banksy litters Monet’s composition with discarded shopping trollies and a fluorescent orange traffic cone," says Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s European Head of Contemporary Art.
"Ever prescient as a voice of protest and social dissent, here Banksy shines a light on society’s disregard for the environment in favour of the wasteful excesses of consumerism. Recent years have seen seminal Banksys come to auction, but this is one of his strongest, and most iconic, to appear yet," he adds.
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The famed street artist created the artwork in 2005 and is part of a series collectively known as the "Crude Oils" which makes up of "remixes" of canonical artworks. In this collection, the artists take and subvert the language of art history to recreate renowned artworks with their own witty versions.
Monet's original painting of the Japanese bridge at Giverny was considered pivotal in his career as it is a scene that he returned to in the last three decades of his life. Only one of two of the fabled works are in private hands so it is considered "the holy grail" of artworks that serious collectors hope of acquiring.
"And here we see Banksy take ownership of that, by putting a tongue-in-cheek mark on what has been held up by generations as an icon of Western Art History," says Helena Newman, Worldwide Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department & Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe.
The auction will be held physically in London on October 21 but will also be live-streamed globally on Sotheby's website and Facebook as well as Museum TV's channel. Bidders around the world can participate by phone, online or absentee bidding.
Find out more at Sotheby's official website
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