We used to dream of winning the pools or the lottery. Many now fantasise instead about waking up to find a work by one of the world’s most famous artists stencilled on the side of their house – and laughing all the way to the Banksy.
But be careful what you wish for because street art is no easy shortcut to fame and fortune.
This week, the latest Banksy came on to the market, a giant seagull eating chips from a skip, painted on the end of a house in Lowestoft, Suffolk, in 2021.
It had to be removed in two pieces – the largest 5m wide and 6.6m deep – in total weighing more than 11 tons. (Last year, the owner, retired roofing contractor Garry Coutts, estimated the cost of removal would “likely top £200,000” and said the council had threatened to put a preservation order on the piece that would have made him responsible for maintenance costs of £40,000 a year.) Price for the work (not inclusive of the skip, which was removed because of fly tipping concerns) is on application at theseagullmural.com.
Also coming up for sale is a 2006 relic, Happy Choppers, showing a fleet of Apache helicopters with pink bows, which was painted over by the irritated owner of the office building in Shoreditch, east London, and sold on to a buyer who only discovered its existence from a Banksy book and spotted a section peeping through the paint.
