www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Banksy39s-artwork-on-Leeds-barn.4560679.jpBanksy's artwork on Leeds barn has £35,000 price tag
Published Date:
06 October 2008
By Charles Heslett
Exclusive
WHAT has an international graffiti artist and a Leeds farmer got in common?
This week a stencilled image of a television smashing through a window, which Banksy spray-painted on the side of a cattle barn in north Leeds, went on sale with a £35,000 price tag.
The artist, whose identity remains a secret but whose paintings sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds, created the work back in 2003 for a magazine shoot with the pop band Blur.
It was left to the mercy of the elements until earlier this year when its owner decided to sell it.
Incredibly Banksy made not one but three pieces of art during his time at the farm.
Lucy Smith, 28, the farmer's daughter who now lives in Oxford, said: "I didn't speak to Banksy. To be honest I was a bit too pre-occupied with Blur.
"He practiced first on a bit of gate and then did a stencil of a girl holding a television on the other half of the same gate.
"We managed to save one piece of the gate.
Dust
"It came down to Oxford and spent a year under my bed gathering dust before we put it up in me and my fiance's flat.
"A friend who works at an auctioneers said we should sell and it went for £38,400 last year.
"I didn't have any idea about cutting a wall out. Only dad was brave enough to cut it out himself."
The farmer, who does not want to be named, said: "Back in 2003 somebody from a Sunday newspaper said they wanted to come on to the farm to do a photo shoot.
"When they arrived they asked if I had a wall but I had no idea what they were going to do.
"The shed was specially built for rearing calves, but at the time it had hundreds of ducks in it that I was breeding for selling.
"He (Banksy) was sitting on the grass cutting out his stencil. I was watching him while having a cup of tea in the farmhouse. I didn't know what he was up to.
"I know the photographer had to wait ages before the sun was in the right spot before he took the picture."
The shot of Damon Albarn, Dave Roundtree and Alex James, who had headlined the Leeds Festival at Bramham Park, graced the front cover of the first Observer Music Monthly magazine in September 2003.
To remove Banksy's stencil the farmer used a stone saw to cut an eight foot by six foot rectangle.
He and a couple of farm workers welded a metal square tubing frame which they wedged behind the wall. Three lorry straps were passed through holes in the blocks, which were also reinforced with steel rods.
They tied the artwork to the frame and lifted it out with a forklift before welding another metal frame over the front.
Art specialist Andrew Stewart is handling the sale of the wall now in storage as part of the Icons contemporary and urban street art exhibition at the 108 Fine Art Gallery in Harrogate.
He said: "Another client of mine who is a pig farmer and is interested in Banksy. He casually mentioned that one of his pals had one on his barn wall.
"Banksy's work is funny and original. This is an example of some of his earlier stuff before he become so famous."
Contact Andrew Stewart on 01423 819108 or click on
www.108fineart.com.
