interesting! would rather enjoy seeing the original to this in the flesh, although 80g's would be a bit too steep for me, plus, it'll go for more imo.

Here the piece on the Bonhams website - www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=4837217&iSaleNo=18726&iSaleSectionNo=1

Sale 18726 - Urban Art, 11 Jan 2011
New Bond Street

Thats the boy thanks Silky.

www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Controversial-Banksy-art-bound-auction/article-3017501-detail/article.html

CONTROVERSIAL artwork by Banksy which depicts characters from The Jungle Book waiting to be executed is expected to fetch £80,000 at auction.

The mysterious graffiti artist was commissioned by Greenpeace in 2001 to produce the piece to highlight the plight of deforestation.

It had been intended for use on posters, billboards and postcards to bring attention to the impact of cutting down trees.

But because of copyright issues with the Disney Corporation over the use of its characters, Greenpeace decided not to use it and the work has been behind closed doors for almost ten years.

It shows a masked axe-man preparing to execute Shere Khan, Mowgli, Baloo the Bear, King Louie and baby elephant Hathi Junior, all of whom are blindfolded with their arms tied.

Banksy held on to the sizeable work, which measures 66in by 90in, and later gave it to a friend who is now to sell it through Bonhams auctioneers in London next month.

Gareth Williams, an urban art expert from Bonhams, said: "The current vendor was given it by the artist. Banksy created it with acrylic and marker pen on card and the characters were on a pink background.

"Greenpeace were going to put the characters on a scene of forest devastation to help publicise their campaign. When people are looking at buying a Banksy, provenance is important and this is very good."

Mr Williams added: "This is a unique and large work which is typical of Banksy because it has a political message with a touch of humour.

"He is really an anti-commercial artist and I'm aware of him only doing one private commission, from the band Blur, although he has done works for charities."

A spokeswoman for Banksy said she was unsure if the proceeds of the sale would be returned to Greenpeace.

She said: "It's being sold by someone privately."

Sales of Banksy's work have fetched millions of pounds in the past few years and buyers have included A-list celebrities such as Brad Pitt.

His work netted a record £953,336 as he helped the world's leading contemporary artists raise £21.6 million at a charity auction in New York in 2008.

Keep it Spotless – showing a maid armed with brush and dustpan peeling off Damien Hirst-style spotted wallpaper to reveal a brick wall underneath – more than tripled the previous best. Another Banksy – Vandalised Phone Box – went for £307,450 and a third – Ruined Landscape – made £195,650 at the same sale, which was organised by Bono, Hirst and Sotheby's for HIV/Aids relief programmes in Africa.

The previous highest price for a work by Banksy was £228,000 achieved in 2007 for Space Girl and Bird, which was spray-painted on steel.

yeh, shame about the pics. Am sure the auction house will show some at some point. Looks like its a good size, 1.6m x 2.3...

Wonder if Banksy actually personally painted this piece. I've always thought that he didn't

Some will some wont like all sales. Personally i reckon its a decent sale.

I think he drew it with someone else's hand, just like stop an search.

Couldn't believe my eyes today. Page 1 of a extreme conservative regional newspaper (I was sure they'll call him a vandal, but i was wrong...)called "Schwäbische Zeitung" in southern germany.
Never saw a article regarding any other contemporary artist in this newspaper, banksy has to be the next big thing .
Cheers




The article is about his upcoming auction.No news at all, but a nice surprise at the breakfast.