The Banksy artwork Oh My God could fetch up to £1 million during a sale this week.
Works by the anonymous street artist and the painter Frank Auerbach have gone on display at Bonhams ahead of the auction house’s sale of post-war and contemporary art this week.
On My God is estimated to sell for between £700,000 and £1 million.
The 2006 piece was first shown at Banksy’s Barely Legal exhibition in Los Angeles, his debut in the US, the same year.
It features the wording: “Oh my God, that’s so cute. The way you just draw on stuff and think about yourself all the time”, and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the so-called Pest Control Office.
One of the definitive artists of the new millennium, Banksy has left an indelible mark on the walls of art history as a true maverick of the genre.
From his emergence as a figurehead of street art, Banksy has risen to the heights of global superstardom through a course of breakthrough exhibitions, political activism, and artistic showmanship.
It is one of the works that will go under the hammer on Thursday October 22 at Bonhams’ New Bond Street location.
JYM Seated in the Studio VI, by German-born British artist Auerbach, dates from 1988 and was selected by the 89-year-old to appear in his landmark Tate Britain retrospective in 2015.
It has an estimate sale price of between £380,000 and £450,000.
Auerbach arrived in Britain as a refugee in 1939 at the age of eight, making a name in 1950s London alongside Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and David Hockney.
Other works on display include Christo’s Store Front (Project) from 1964 and Howard Hodgkin’s For Edward from 1984.
