Banksy mural cut from Detroit Packard Plant could fetch $200,000-plus at auction
The Banksy mural cut from the former Packard Plant in 2010 by members of the 555 Gallery in Detroit is now up for auction in California and expected to sell for between $200,000 and $400,000.
Steve Neavling of the Motor City Muckraker first reported the story Thursday.The stenciled mural depicts a boy holding a can of red paint next to the crudely painted words, “I remember when this was all trees.”
The 555 Gallery became the focus of criticism after cutting the 8-foot-tall, 1,500-pound concrete canvas from the crumbling former auto plant.
“It was coming down one way or another,” 555 Gallery co-founder J. Monte Martinez told Metro Times in 2010. “If it wasn’t us, it was going to be scrappers.”
Bioresource Inc., the company that owned the Packard Plant at the time, sued the 55 Gallery and eventually accepted a settlement of $2,500.
At the time, preservation was the stated intent; however, the 555 Gallery, which kept the concrete slab on display in its gallery for years, said it planned to sell it — hoping to fetch between $200,000 and $1.2 Million — in March of 2014.
MLive Detroit has requested comment on the upcoming auction from 555 Gallery representatives and is awaiting response.
Julien’s Auctions in auctioning “I remember when this was all trees” Banksy piece along with others by Banksy in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Sept. 30.
Banksy is the pseudonym used by the incognito British artist who has become increasingly famous across the globe throughout his nearly 15-year career. As his fame grows, so to does the value of his art. His work features stencils to paint whimsical or politically poignant messages on public buildings without owner permission.
Julien’s “Donkey Documents,” a piece that shows an Israeli soldier checking a donkey’s ID papers, a satirical jab at the strict Israeli checkpoint policies that appeared on a wall separating Palestine’s West Bank from Israel. It’s expected to sell for over $400,000.
At least two other Banksy works are up for sale, as well as one by street artist Shepard Fairey, who was recently arrested in Detroit on destruction of property charges for unsolicited public are he left behind after completing a paid mural downtown for Dan Gilbert’s company.
Fairey’s piece is expected to bring in much less than any of the Banksy work at $10,000 to $20,000.
Banksy is also featured in the self-financed documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” which premiered in Detroit around the time the Packard Plant mural came to the public’s knowledge.
At least three other suspected Banksy works appeared in Detroit and Warren about the same time.
According to Metro Times, the other works included one in the Cass Corridor of child drawing the ground beneath him with a green Crayon — someone used a power washer to remove it — a mouse walking a tight rope on the wall of a warehouse in Warren; and another of the a girl holding a diamond in northeast Detroit that was removed or broken.
Source: www.mlive.com