Banksy’s Crude Oil (Vettriano) (2005), a rare, handpainted work sold for £4.3 million ($5.4 million) at Sotheby’s modern and contemporary evening auction in London on March 4th (all prices include fees). The artwork, which came from blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus’s private collection, takes inspiration from The Singing Butler (1992) by the late Scottish artist Jack Vettriano, who passed away at 73 earlier this week.
Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Evening auction totaled £62.5 million ($78.62 million), with more than half of the works making their auction debut. One standout debut was Alberto Burri’s Sacco e Nero 3 (1955), smashing its high estimate of £3.5 million ($4.4 million) when it sold for £4.9 million ($6.2 million).
Crude Oil (Vettriano) is Banksy’s environmentally-conscious reworking of Vettriano’s most famous work. Vettriano’s original painting features a couple in formal dress dancing across a beach accompanied by a butler and a maid. In Banksy’s reimagined painting, the maid is replaced with two figures in yellow hazmat suits carrying what appears to be a barrel of toxic waste.
The top lot of the evening was Yoshitomo Nara’s Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) (2005), which sold for £9 million ($11.4 million). The work, one of the first to feature the artist’s signature rainbow-colored eyes, sparked a 10-minute bidding war.
Meanwhile, South African artist Lisa Brice achieved a new artist record, with After Embah (2018) fetching £5.4 million ($6.8 million) after a 10-minute bidding war between six potential buyers. The painting’s pre-sale estimate was £1 million–£1.5 million ($1.2 million–$1.9 million). This work nearly doubles the artist’s record set when No Bare Back, after Embah (2017) sold for $3.1 million at Sotheby’s in 2021.
Six bidders battled over German Surrealist Max Ernst’s bronze sculpture Moonmad (1975–76), which tripled its estimate when it sold for £2.1 million ($2.7 million). The work, which depicts a jester-like figure, was last seen at auction at Sotheby’s in 1979. Several other sculptures surpassed their estimates throughout the night, including two bronzes from Auguste Rodin: Éternel printemps (1894) and Cariatide à la pierre (ca. 1889–93), which sold for £1.3 million ($1.6 million) and £698,500 ($878,608), respectively.
