The prints by a maverick street artist from Bristol with a gift for upturning authority were sold for as little as £75 originally.
Anyone who bought and kept a Banksy edition made a lucrative move.
The latest figures show that just over 400 of the prints have made more than £22,777,000 over the course of the past 12 months.
The demand for limited editions such as ‘Girl with Balloon’ has continued despite the end of a surge during Covid.
The figures can be revealed after Metro reported on a new Banksy artwork that is thought to have been daubed in the heart of London.
The arresting image was first spotted yesterday morning in Clerkenwell Green, Farringdon.
A signed iteration of Girl with Balloon is currently valued at between £150,000 and £230,000 at My Art Broker, with its price having risen 11% over the past five years.
Global Banksy sales valued at £24,426,254 in the past 12 months have been recorded by the London and New York-based broker from 424 prints.
Astonishingly, it’s all the work of maverick graffiti artist who shuns the art world glitterati — and these are not even originals.
‘Banksy’s market is uniquely driven by demand for his most iconic and widely recognised works,’ said My Art Broker’s Helena Poole.
‘Prints like Girl with Balloon consistently appear at auction, both as signed and unsigned editions, and while these works have come down in value slightly, they continue to attract buyers far beyond traditional art hubs like New York, London and Asia.
‘The global appeal of his work was evident when a signed edition of Girl with Balloon sold for £285,000 in New Zealand — a 32% increase from its previous high in 2023.
‘Banksy’s most culturally significant pieces remain iconic and underscore his ability to command strong prices on a worldwide scale, a distinction few artists achieve.’
Some of Banksy’s most recognisable works sold for as little as £74.99 initially, including unsigned prints of ‘Love Rat’, which first hit the market in 2004. The Bristolian described the graffiti-style daubing as ‘the ideal gift for a cheating spouse.’
Values for authenticated prints have since rocketed as he has become the most famous street artist in the world, with his anti-establishment images attracting a global market.
A dizzying moment for his originals came in 2021 when ‘Love is in the Bin’ sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London for almost £18.6 million — the highest price ever paid for a Banksy.
The artwork was a shredded and modified version of Girl With Balloon that had sold four years earlier at the same auction house for £1.1million.
One of Banky’s most instantly familiar creations, the image of hope showing a small child reaching out to a balloon, first appeared as a mural in Shoreditch more than two decades ago.
‘The self-destructing of the Girl With Balloon canvas and creation of Love Is In The Bin is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about stunts in art history,’ Poole said.
‘The plan was for the shredder, hidden in the frame, to destroy the composition entirely but instead it stopped halfway through.
‘The image itself has become an icon of contemporary art and the act of destruction and creation propelled the image to new heights and firmly rooted Banksy’s dissident and anti-art establishment status.’
Despite his designs being a multi-million-pound industry involving some of the biggest auction houses brokers, Banksy has swerved the high life.
He has continued to embrace his spray can and stencil roots and has been busy on the streets of London in recent months.
Security teams have been brought in at some of the locations he has bestowed art on, including a family fish shop in north London, to which he added Pelicans, and a police box painted with piranhas outside the Old Bailey across the capital
The latest known street art is the London graffiti, thought to be a Banksy due to its style and balloon theme, on a boarded-up public toilet.
Efforts are underway to protect the image, which shows a girl holding balloon shapes against a black background, with an accompanying notice telling passers-by not to tamper with or remove it.
Banksy’s auction house depiction, ‘Moron’, even appears to cock a snoop at the very people trading his works for massively increased values.
The jab has done nothing to deter wealthy fans and those looking to make a profit from re-sales of authenticated prints in the secondary market.
Poole, a Banksy specialist, said: ‘Banksy’s market is uniquely driven by demand for his most iconic and widely recognised works.
‘Prints like Girl With Balloon consistently appear at auction, both as signed and unsigned editions, and while these works have come down in value slightly, they continue to attract buyers far beyond traditional art hubs like New York, London and Asia.
‘The global appeal of his work was evident when a signed edition of Girl With Balloon sold for £285,000 in New Zealand — a 32% increase from its previous high in 2023.
‘Banksy’s most culturally significant pieces remain iconic and underscores his ability to command strong prices on a worldwide scale, a distinction few artists achieve.’
London-based Forum Auctions held an ‘Only Banksy’ sale last month where three prints — Love is in the Air (Flower Thrower), Choose Your Weapon, in bright pink, and a signed iteration of Very Little Helps sold for more than £100,000 combined.
The auction house says it was the first to hold ‘single artist’ Banksy sales and is the market leader for the sale of authenticated prints.
Alexander Hayter, international head of department, modern & contemporary art and editions, told Metro: ‘Banksy’s imagery is amongst the most recognisable of the 21st century and in many respects he is to contemporary street art what Warhol was to Pop.
‘Enormously popular amongst art collectors, his prints have been produced in strict limited editions, featuring some of his most beloved images, and most importantly Banksy has in place one of the most robust authentication and certification processes in contemporary art.’
Underneath it all is the question of who the creator really is.
His Pest Control management team has provided an answer to those who think they have worked the identity riddle out.
The advice states: ‘Great, Banksy hugely appreciates any suggestions and is currently struggling with that very question.
‘Please write “existential crisis” in the email heading.’
Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact josh.layton@metro.co.uk
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