Banksy’s reimagining of Claude Monet’s Impressionist water lilies has fetched more than £7.5 million at auction, easily surpassing expectations.
Show Me The Monet was created in 2005 and adds abandoned shopping trolleys and a traffic cone to the famous garden scene.
It was sold at a Sotheby’s event in London on Wednesday following a near nine-minute battle between five collectors, the auction house said.
It fetched £7,551,600 against an expectation of between £3.5-5 million.
The painting is the second most expensive Banksy sold at auction, after the reclusive artist’s Devolved Parliament sold for £9.9 million last year.
Show Me The Monet forms part of a series titled Crude Oil, which “remixes” canonical works.
The series also includes Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers wilting or dead in their vase, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks confronted by an angry man in Union Jack boxer shorts and Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe re-faced with Kate Moss.
Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s European head of contemporary art, said: “In one of his most important paintings, Banksy has taken Monet’s iconic depiction of the Japanese bridge in the Impressionist master’s famous garden at Giverny and transformed it into a modern-day fly-tipping spot.
“More canal than idyllic lily pond, Banksy litters Monet’s composition with discarded shopping trollies and a fluorescent orange traffic cone.
“Ever prescient as a voice of protest and social dissent, here Banksy shines a light on society’s disregard for the environment in favour of the wasteful excesses of consumerism.”