Rare Banksy painting sells for $5.5 mn at London sale

LONDON

A rare painting by street artist Banksy which reimagines Jack Vettriano's famous "The Singing Butler" sold for nearly 4.3 million pounds ($5.5 million) at an auction in London, Sotheby's said on March 4.

The sale of Banksy's "Crude Oil (Vettriano)" comes a day after the death of Scottish painter Vettriano, 73, was announced.

Vettriano's "Singing Butler" depicts a couple in evening dress dancing on a windswept beach accompanied by a butler and a maid holding umbrellas. It set a Scottish record when it was sold at auction in 2004 for £744,800.

It became the U.K.'s best-selling print reproduction, outselling Monet and Van Gogh and inspiring Banksy to subvert its romantic narrative for his own painting.

In "Crude Oil [Vettriano]," which is sometimes called "Toxic beach," Banksy reworks the scene to add a sinking oil liner and two men in hazmat suits wheeling a barrel of toxic waste onto the beach.

The painting was sold at Sotheby's by U.S. musician and record producer Mark Hoppus, co-founder of pop-punk band Blink-182.

"Banksy used his trademark humor and irony to produce an image that tackles pressing issues of the 21st century such as the environment, pollution and the capitalist landscape," Sotheby's said ahead of the auction.

The work felt "more relevant today than ever before given the increasing frequency of natural disasters", it added.

The painting was first exhibited in Banksy's landmark 2005 exhibition "Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-mixed Masterpieces, Vandalism and Vermin."