The Union Jack stab vest that was once displayed in a Banksy exhibition on Croydon’s Church Street could fetch up to £300,000 at auction in central London.
For sale: Banksy’s stab vest, as worn by Stomzy at Glastonbury in 2018
That’s according to New Bond Street auction house Sotheby’s, who have the stab vest along with four other works by the mysterious artist Banksy in their auction catalogue.
Stormzy wore a Banksy-designed stab vest on the main stage at Glastonbury in 2018.
The following year, a stab vest looking very much like it appeared in a shop window in Croydon town centre, as the artist staged an exhibition of his own work: “Gross Domestic Product – where art irritates life”.
The shop, a disused carpet store opposite Croydon’s historic Surrey Street street market, had a notice stuck up outside to explain the purpose: “The showroom is for display purposes only and the doors will not open.”
Items in the shop window and offered for sale at the time included welcome mats, made from life vests salvaged from the shores of the Mediterranean, as well as disco balls made from used police riot helmets, a signed spray paint can, a handbag made from a brick and a toddler’s counting toy where children are encouraged to load wooden migrant figures inside a haulage truck.
Explainer: how the stab vest was described in Banksy’s Church Street exhibition in 2019
The Banksy display was part of the artist’s then on-going copyright dispute with a third-party who was flogging merchandise that looked very much like original artworks. Banksy won his case.
A cardboard sign in one of the Croydon shop windows referred to the Union Jack stab vest as “as worn by Stormzy”.
It was noted to be signed (by Banksy, not Stormzy), and part of an “edition of 5 plus 2”.
The stab-proof vest is made from a former police issue garment, and has had a colour-drained design of the Union flag painted across it. It is a fairly obvious comment on the high levels of knife crime and gang violence in Britain.
Sotheby’s describe the stab vest as “Banksy at his best”. But then they would say that, as auctioneers usually expect to get a 25% fee for handling the sale, plus a premium from the buyer, too. Cushty!
“There is no doubt this artwork is more pertinent now than when the first vest debuted at Glastonbury – an event that saw it become the symbol of a defining cultural moment,” Sotheby’s said, after having had “Glastonbury” and “knife crime” explained to them…
Banksy’s stab vest will be on display during Frieze Festival, a high-end contemporary art exhibition, before the auction, and then be displayed at Sotheby’s New Bond Street Galleries from this Thursday, October 3, until October 9.
Previous Banksy auctions have created global headlines. His Girl With Balloon was shredded the moment after the auctioneer’s gavel came down at just over £1million in 2018. Three years later, the shredded paper, now called Love Is In The Bin, fetched £18.6million at auction.
Read more: Banksy takes on big business through his Croydon store
Read more: Banksy warns: do not trade with this Croydon art dealer
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If you remember, all these exhibits were up for grabs in a prize draw competition.
You had to give a reason why you wanted the item, and commit to not selling it for two (?) years.
I bid for the ‘three flying ducks’ Reaper drones. Unsuccessfully you may surmise, as you definitely would have seen them in Sotheby’s by now.
Assuming the owner of the vest acquired it through the draw, a very nice pay off for them.