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 "Kissing Coppers," a black-and-white stencil of two British
police officers kissing in close embrace, was purchased by an
anonymous telephone buyer, Fine Art Auctions Miami said. The
work originally appeared on the side of the Prince Albert Pub in
Brighton, England, in 2005.
The wall is one of several Banksy works removed from their
original location and sold to collectors. It was auctioned along
with two more Banksy pieces — "Bandaged Heart Balloon" and
"Crazy Horse Car Door" — created during the artist's month-long
"street residency" in New York City last year.
Those two pieces, priced at $200,000 and $100,000 respectively,
failed to reach their asking price. The Banksy piece that did
sell had a winning bid of $480,000 plus $95,000 in fees. It had
been expected to fetch between $500,000 and $700,000.
The auction of 54 works also included a sketch by Jean-Michel
Basquiat, which sold for $180,000, and a Keith Haring
watercolor, "Roger in the Flowers."
Banksy, whose graffiti and stenciled paintings appear as social
commentary in public spaces and private property around the
world, emerged in Bristol, England, in the early 1990s.
Despite having worldwide notoriety and being featured in the
2010 Oscar-nominated documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop,"
the artist has kept his real name a secret.
Collectors over the past decade have increasingly sought the
often lewd, brightly colored street art painted, drawn or
sprayed on everything from metal gates to concrete walls.
"Young people want to have a message, a dialogue, and they want
a way to express themselves," said Frederic Thut, director of
Fine Art Auctions Miami.
"The potential of this market is incredible. I was at the first
sales of pop art and it was exactly the same people coming from
nowhere and buying immediately," he added.
The three pieces by Banksy were offered by a private collector
who wants to remain anonymous, said Thut, adding they were not
owned by Stephan Keszler, owner of a New York City gallery known
for dealing in works by Banksy.
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 Keszler in 2013 represented the owner of "Slave
Labour," a spray-paint image of a young boy kneeling at a sewing
machine with Union Jack bunting, which sold for $1.1 million,
Keszler said.
"It's new, it's more fun, it's younger, it's more democratic," said
Keszler.
Critics say the artworks should not be removed from their original
locations, as it takes away from the artist's original intent.
"The people who are buying this stuff, chopping it off walls, and
putting it in their homes don't realize they only have a piece of
the puzzle," said RJ Rushmore, who runs the Philadelphia-based
street art blog Vandalog.com.
The auction comes as Miami looks to bolster its
image as a global cultural hub. The annual Art Basel Miami Beach in
early December, the largest fair in North America, coincided with
the opening of Herzog & de Meuron-designed Perez Art Museum Miami on
the shores of Biscayne Bay.
Art Wynwood, a contemporary art fair held a short walk away from
Miami's fast-rising arts district, hosted more than 30,000 visitors
over the long President's Day weekend, browsing works by popular
street artists Shepard Fairey and Stinkfish, as well as traditional
sculptors and painters, such as Fernando Botero and Wifredo Lam.
The Miami art market suffered a black eye on Sunday when police
arrested a local artist accused of destroying a $1 million vase,
part of an exhibit by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei at the
Perez Art Museum.
Maximo Caminero told police he broke the vase to protest that the
museum "only displayed international artists," according to the
police report.
(Editing by David Adams and Lisa
Shumaker)
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