Banksy‘s Valentine’s Day Mascara mural is being sold back to the public. Not in an auction setting, however, but rather through a fractional ownership platform where potential bidders can pay $153 USD per share. The mural depicts a 1950s-style housewife who has a black eye and a missing tooth, as she sweeps up a man (only present by his shoes wailing in the air) into an open chest freezer, as a commentary on domestic violence.
The freezer the artwork stood by has been removed twice since its creation. First, by the Thanet Council and the second time by London’s Red Eight Galleries, who is now brokering the sale of the mural with the owner of the Margate townhouse which it is displayed on.
“Realistically, we are looking to achieve between £1m GBP and £1.5m GBP,” said Red Eight Galleries CEO Julian Usher in an interview with The Art Newspaper. While Banksy confirmed the mural as real on Instagram, Usher notes that the artist’s creative studio, Pest Control, has not yet authenticated it, meaning that they can’t sell it through a traditional auction house. “There is a grey secondary market for these pieces, but in the current financial market, those people are just not there”.
Valentine’s Day Mascara is currently on view to the public at the Dreamland Margate amusement park for at least the next the next 24 months. Members of the public will get their chance to own up to 27,000 of the available shares starting on August 22.
Elsewhere, Hypeart caught up with Cooper about his latest show Wild Life at Maddox Gallery in Gstaad.
