Monkey Business

The robust sale at Bonhams London of a nearly 20-foot-long multipanel work by the British street artist Banksy touched off speculation that the buyers might take a novel approach to turning a profit. Laugh Now, a 2002 stencil spray painting on wood of a chimp, repeated almost 10 times, fetched £228,000 ($449,000) at Bonhams’s first Urban Art sale, in February. Several sources, including a dealer with a bird’s-eye view of the salesroom, identified three private London dealers who specialize in street art and all things Banksy as the purchasers. Speculation was rife that the enterprising trio would slice up the giant work and reoffer individual chimps for as much as £120,000 ($237,000) apiece. One Notting Hill dealer reacted to the prospect this way: “It would be like cutting up a Damien Hirst spot painting.”

"Monkey Business" originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2008 Table of Contents.