‘Banksy would doubtless have you believe this print is an ironic comment on the paranoid nature of our security-minded times.
But seriously, how much is this guy courting the pink pound?
It’s got a man in uniform, latex, and Dorothy herself all in one spanky package.’

This print relates to the plot of The Wizard of Oz and suggests that Dorothy and Toto are being prevented from getting home. The purity and naivety associated with the protagonist in the film is embedded within the artwork and only accentuates the absurdity of the search itself. Dorothy is a character representing innocence and freedom, and yet even she is not free from the menacing influence of the state.
Stop and Search illustrates a theme dear to Banksy: defiance towards authority and law enforcement, a topic he revisits in many of his works. For example, a mural by the same name appeared in Palestine in 2013 except that. in this work, it is the school age girl in a pink dress searching the soldier. This is a classic, humoristic twist employed by the artist whereby the roles are reversed to further highlight how unfair, absurd, and excessive he feels the state’s reach has become.


Stop and Search Original
DESCRIPTION
Stop and Search
Editions
Numbering and Signature
AUCTION RESULTS
Auction Results (2020/2022)
Stop and Search, 2007
Signed in blue crayon, lower right
Numbered 378/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Sotheby’s online: 17 August 2022
GBP 50,400 / USD 60,480
Stop and Search, 2007
Signed in blue crayon, lower right
Numbered 235/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Heritage Auctions: 28 July 2022
USD 62,500
Stop and Search, 2007
Signed in blue crayon, lower right
Numbered 334/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Sotheby’s London: 30 June 2022
GBP 50,400 / USD 61,992
Stop and Search, 2007
Signed in blue crayon, lower right
Numbered 222/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Phillips London: 15 June 2022
GBP 69,300 / USD 85,239
Stop and Search, 2007
Signed in blue crayon, lower right
Numbered 98/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Sotheby’s online: 26 April 2022
GBP 63,000 / USD 79,380


