モネ題材のバンクシー油絵、１０億円超で落札

【ロンドンＡＦＰ＝時事】英国の覆面ストリートアーティスト、バンクシーがフランスの巨匠のクロード・モネの代表作を題材に描いた油絵「ショー・ミー・ザ・モネ」が21日、ロンドンで競売にかけられ、755万1600ポンド（約10億3500万円）で落札された。競売にかけられたバンクシー作品としては2番目に高額となる。（写真はバンクシーの絵画「ショー・ミー・ザ・モネ」）
　今回の競売を手掛けた競売大手サザビーズは、「購入意思の固い５人のコレクターが９分近くにわたって入札合戦を繰り広げたため、落札価格は予想の３００万～５００万ポンド（約４億１０００万～６億８０００万円）をはるかに上回り、競売にかけられたバンクシー作品としては２番目の価格にまでつり上がった」と発表した。
　２００５年に制作された「ショー・ミー・ザ・モネ」は、「クルード・オイルス」と呼ばれる連作の一枚で、仏ジベルニーにある庭園の日本風の橋を描いたモネの代表作がモチーフ。牧歌的なスイレンの池は、水面からショッピングカートや蛍光オレンジのパイロンが突き出す現代の不法投棄現場に置き換えられている。
　１年前には、議員の代わりにチンパンジーが着席している英議会を描いた２００９年作の絵画が、バンクシー作品で過去最高額となる約９９０万ポンド（約１３億５７００万円）で落札された。
　 「退化した議会」と題されたこの作品をめぐっては、１３分間にわたって１０人による入札合戦が繰り広げられた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/10/22-15:31）

An oil painting by British street artist Banksy parodying a Claude Monet masterpiece sold in London on Wednesday for ��7.6 million, the second highest price at auction for the mysterious artist.
The oil on canvas work, Show Me the Monet, a modern take on Monet's impressionist classic The Water-Lily Pond, sold for ��7,551,600 ($9.8 mn, 8.4 mn euros) at Sotheby's following a bidding battle.
The hammer came down after five determined collectors battled for nearly nine minutes to drive the final price beyond its estimate of ��3,000,000-5,000,000 to become the second highest price for the artist at auction, Sotheby's said.
The sale comes a year after a Banksy painting depicting the British parliament populated by chimpanzees smashed the record for the street artist by fetching nearly ��9.9 million.
On that occasion the 2009 work entitled Devolved Parliament attracted a 13-minute battle between 10 different bidders.
Show Me the Monet was created in 2005, as part of a collection called The Crude Oils and had first been shown publicly in only Banksy's second gallery exhibition.
The painting transforms Monet's masterpiece depicting a Japanese-style bridge in his famous garden at Giverny into a modern-day fly-tipping spot.
Instead of an idyllic lily pond, the composition shows discarded shopping trollies and a fluorescent orange traffic cone floating in the water beneath the bridge.
Ever prescient as a voice of protest and social dissent, here Banksy shines a light on society's disregard for the environment in favour of the wasteful excesses of consumerism, said Alex Branczik, Sotheby's European Head of Contemporary Art.
Recent years have seen seminal Banksys come to auction, but this is one of his strongest, and most iconic, to appear yet, he added.
Banksy has become a household name since the turn of the century, after his iconic graffiti paintings began to appear overnight on buildings and at sites around the world.
The artist's identity remains shrouded in mystery even as his works have begun to attract increasingly high sums at auction.
Meanwhile he continues to use his art in stunts that generate huge publicity.
In 2018 his Girl With The Balloon partially shredded itself as the hammer came down at Sotheby's, becoming the retitled Love Is In The Bin.