Banksy’s “Devolved Parliament,” a satirical oil painting depicting the House of Commons filled with chimpanzees, has sold at auction in London for a record-breaking £9,879,500 ($12,200,000), after going on display in Bristol in March to mark the first missed Brexit deadline. The final sale price far exceeded auction house Sotheby’s estimate of £1,500,000 to £2,000,000 ($1,900,000 to $2,500,000). Previously, the highest price the artist had commanded at auction was $1,870,000 for “Keep it Spotless,” a Damien Hirst spot painting which Banksy updated with a spray-painted hotel maid. The artwork was sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2008.
“Devolved Parliament,” Banksy’s largest canvas at 13 feet, was created in 2009 for the Banksy vs. Bristol Museum exhibition, and was initially titled “Question Time.” Ahead of its reappearance at the Bristol Museum the day before March 29 — the original “Brexit Day” — the anonymous artist renamed it, as well as reworking a few details in the painting, extinguishing the House of Commons lamps and turning a banana held by a chimp upside down.
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