Banksy artwork bought for $300 at MCA expected to sell for $150k

A $300 Banksy artwork bought at the MCA Store in 2003 has emerged as the art bargain of a lifetime.

A Banksy screen print picked up at the MCA Store at Circular Quay for less than $300 in 2003 is estimated to fetch its lucky owner between $100,000 and $150,000 at auction this month, eclipsing Banksy’s Australian auction record.

Banksy’s Love Is In The Air is number 450 of an edition of 500 printed in 2003, according to Smith and Singer auctioneers’ chairman Geoffrey Smith.

Mr Smith said his company’s inquiries had suggested that Banksy himself was in Australia in 2003 and that he personally dropped his artworks to the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) Store, which sells everything from puzzles and souvenirs to art books.

Love Is In The Air, Banksy, 2003. Purchased at MCA store for less than $300 in 2003, the image will be auctioned by Smith and Singer in a timed, online auction ending 10pm on May 13, 2021.

Mr Smith said Banksy’s current record at auction in Australia is $55,000, set in May 2020 for a work called No Ball Games (Green).

Mr Smith said he based his estimate for Love Is In The Air on recent international sales of numbers from the same edition.

Sotheby’s in London sold number 51 of the same work in September last year for 170,000 pounds hammer price, after estimating it would to sell for between 15,000 and 20,000 pounds.

In March this year Sotheby’s London sold number 231 for exactly the same hammer price, against an estimate of 50,000 to 70,000 pounds.

The Sydney-based owner of Love Is In The Air, which depicts a masked man in the act of throwing a bouquet of flowers as though it were a Molotov cocktail, wishes to remain anonymous.

Banksy artworks on display in Sydney in 2011. The artist’s works now sell for huge sums, although his identity remains a mystery. Picture: Charles Brewer

The owner does not have the original receipt, but remembers paying “less than $300”.

The work is now accompanied by certification from Banksy’s Pest Control authentication company. The work is not signed by Banksy, but is stamped and inscribed “banksy/ 450/500”.

“Love Is In The Air (2003) is part of a larger series of paintings and prints also known as Flower Thrower,” the auction catalogue said.

“It is one of Banksy’s most recognisable images and one that has been widely appropriated.

The MCA in Sydney, where the artist Bansky personally dropped off the prints sold back in 2003.

Perhaps the most influential placement of the work was the large stencil that Banksy painted on a wall near Beit Sahour, a Palestinian town on the West Bank.”

Bids are now open for Love Is In The Air in a stand-alone, online auction that ends at 10pm on May 13.

Intriguingly, in March 2003 the artist 3D (Robert Del Naja) was touring Australia in Massive Attack. It has been speculated by many people that Del Naja is actually Banksy. Banksy has never revealed his identity, which remains one of the art world’s biggest mysteries.

Potential buyers can register to bid here.

The Smith & Singer Catalogue can be seen here.