A woman is laughing all the way to the Banksy after selling two of his pieces for £125,000 – eight months on from buying them for just £75 in a park.
The guerilla artist spent October 2013 in New York as part of his ‘Better Out Than In’ residency, leaving artwork around the city.
He set up an anonymous stall in Central Park where his paintings were sold at cut-price to unassuming passersby.
Despite offering the pieces for around $60 (£38) each he only managed to sell eight – with one astute Chicago man buying half of them.
The valuable pieces were handed over in a blue plastic carrier bag with no protection.
The following day it emerged that those lucky enough to buy the artwork had got some of the biggest bargains in history.
Two of the pieces – ‘Kids on Guns’ and ‘Winnie the Pooh’ – were bought by a woman tourist from New Zealand.
They have now fetched six-figures at Bonhams’ Contemporary Art Sale in London on Wednesday.
Kids on Guns, which features two youngsters holding a balloon and teddy bear while stood on a cache of weapons, sold for£68,500.
Winnie the Pooh has the famous bear with his foot caught in a hunting trap next to a money jar and went for £56,250.
The combined total of £124,750 is around 1,650 TIMES the price the owner paid for them – just eight months ago.
Both pieces are 45cm x 45cm and are accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
Gareth Williams, an art expert at Bonhams, said: “The cost £70 for the pair so the reader has got an incredible deal. She is delighted – it really is tremendous.
“This is a unique experience. Banksy likes to play with the market and this wouldn’t happen with any other artist.”
Banksy warned fans the New York sale was “a one off” to avoid a dangerous scrum of bargain hunters flocking to the park on later days.
His takings on the day totalled just $420 (£263) and one woman even managed to negotiate a 50 per cent discount when she bought two small canvasses for her children.
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