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The rare edition, one of 25 created by the
elusive British street artist in 2005, features a young girl in
one painting and her heart-shaped balloon in another.
"It's a pretty signature image for Banksy in that he did the
first iteration of it on the streets," Katharine Arnold, co-head
of Post-War and Contemporary Art for Christie's in Europe, told
Reuters as the artwork went on display at the auction house's
London showrooms on Friday.
"The Girl With Balloon" first appeared on the streets of
London's Shoreditch neighbourhood in 2002, with Banksy creating
versions of the painting on London's South Bank in 2004 and at
Israel's barrier at the West Bank in 2005.
"There are some iterations of this where you see the little girl
with the balloon in the tiny little format of a single canvas,"
Arnold said.
"Here ... the balloon is already flown away into a second
canvas. And of course, that means that she's forever separated
from her little heart balloon that she's hankering after."
The diptych has been in the hands of a private UK collector
since 2013. It is the first of its kind to go on sale at
Christie's, where it seen fetching between 2.5 million and 3.5
million pounds ($3.39 million - $4.75 million).
"It's an image that really is about hope and aspiration, which
after the last 18 months that we've gone through is something
that we all need more than ever," Arnold said.
Banksy, whose real identity is unknown, rose to fame for sharply
ironic outdoor graffiti with political themes. Once a small-time
graffiti artist from the English city of Bristol, his art work
has become hugely popular and valuable.
"The Girl With Balloon" diptych will be part of Christie's
"20th/21st Century: Evening Sale Including Thinking Italian"
held in London on Oct. 15.
($1 = 0.7374 pounds)
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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