BANKSY
Girl with Balloon, 2006
Spray-paint on metal
60×90 cm (23.7 x 35.5 inches)
This work is from an edition of 5
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist
Auction History
| Sotheby’s London 2 March 2022 Est.: GBP 2,000,000 – 3,000,000 |
Price Realized GBP 2,818,000 / USD 3,766,875 Girl with Balloon Sotheby’s (sothebys.com) |
Catalogue Note
Few images have come to define Banksy’s artistic legacy as completely as Girl and Balloon. First appearing as a mural on London’s South Bank in 2002, the composition has become an international symbol of hope, love, innocence and loss. Its extraordinary simplicity—a young girl reaching toward a heart-shaped balloon carried away by the wind—allows it to transcend language and culture, inviting each viewer to project their own story onto the image. Whether the balloon is being lost or released remains deliberately unresolved, making it one of the most emotionally resonant works in contemporary art.
Executed on a reclaimed metal panel, this work preserves the raw materiality of Banksy’s street practice. The weathered industrial surface recalls the walls and doors upon which the artist first established his reputation, blurring the boundary between public intervention and collectible artwork. Rather than isolating the image from its urban origins, the support becomes part of its narrative, lending the work an authenticity that echoes the fleeting nature of street art itself.
More than any other Banksy motif, Girl and Balloon has evolved into a universal cultural icon. It has been reinterpreted across countless murals, editions and campaigns, culminating in the unprecedented transformation of the work into Love is in the Bin following its self-destruction at Sotheby’s in 2018. Yet the enduring power of the image lies in its restraint. With a single figure and a solitary red balloon, Banksy distilled one of the oldest human experiences into a visual language of remarkable clarity: that hope is often most meaningful at the very moment it seems beyond our grasp.
Banksy has created multiple stunts surrounding the Girl with Balloon image. The most notorious was the dramatic live ‘shredding’ at Sotheby’s in October 2018 which notoriously dominated headlines the world over. Taking the art world by storm, that work has since been exhibited at Museum Frieder-Burda in Baden-Baden and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, where it had a substantial impact on visitor numbers. Love is in the Bin returned to Sotheby’s in October 2021 where it broke Banksy’s auction record selling for GBP 18,582,000. The centrality of the Girl with Balloon motif to this epic stunt is tribute to the far-reaching power of its image.
This work comes from the collection of Robbie Williams, who acquired it directly from the artist in 2006. Like Banksy, Robbie Williams was one of the most important figures in British culture in the 2000s. In their respective fields, each of these creative figures defined the landscape. It is befitting that Williams owned such an iconic piece of British art and in the context of Williams’ ownership, it is easier to read the message of the work as hopeful.
Another work from this very discreet edition sold at Sotheby’s in London, on 27 June 2012.
BANKSY
Girl and Balloon, 2005
Spray-paint stencil on metal
60×91 cm (23 5/8 x 35 7/8 inches)
Tagged in red on the right-side edge
Further signed and dated “11/12/05” on the reverse
Provenance
Lazarides Gallery, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2006
Auction History
| Sotheby’s London 27 June 2012 Est.: GBP 80,000 – 120,000 |
Price Realized GBP 169,250 / USD 263,185 (#224) Banksy |
