A 1988 Volvo box truck FL6 17-ton truck circa 1988 is about to go on the auction block where it could possibly fetch a cool $2 million, according to Car and Driver Magazine.
The auction is set for September 14, and this could be the most a box truck sells for—ever—thanks to anonymous graffiti artist who goes merely by “Banksy”.
The truck, a 1988 Volvo FL6 box truck, has been painted—or more aptly, graffitied—by the England-based street artist and is expected to sell for at least $1.3 million later this month—and possibly for as much as $2 million.
The truck, known as “Laugh Now but One Day We’ll Be in Charge” was painted in 2000 by the renegade artist, and is his largest work to date.
But it is far from his most famous—or rather, infamous. Banksy’s “Girl with a Balloon” painting which sold for $1.4 million at auction, was designed (unbeknownst to the buyer) to shred itself immediately after the auction gavel fell. The buyer, while shocked, decided to go through with the sale despite the shredding.
This opulence in the art world is surpassed only by the staggering sums people have paid for art over the last few years.
We have the top five for you right here.
#1. The most expensive painting ever sold, even drawing shock from those in the art community, was Salvador Mundi, by Leonardo Da Vinci, which sold for $450.3 million at Christie’s in 2017. The figure is even more surprising because it is questionable whether it is even an authentic da Vinci. The winning bidder was Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman.
#2 Willem De Kooning’s “Interchange” raked in $300 million at a private sale in 2015 to hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin. While only second on our list, it is the most expensive abstract painting sold to date. Its original sale date was in 1955 for just $4,000.
#3. Third on our list is Paul Cezanne’s “The Card Players” which sold in 2012 for somewhere between $250 million and $300 million. The buyer this time was the Royal Family of Qatar, and the painting was purchased from a broker, rather than at auction. At the time of sale, it ranked #1 on the list of most expensive artworks ever sold, and was only later surpassed by “Interchange” and “Salvador Mundi”.
#4. “Nafea FAA Ipoipo”, by Paul Gauguin, sold for $210 million, and like The Card Players, the buyer was the Qatar Royal Family in 2014. At the time of sale, the 1892 painting was thought to be the most expensive painting ever sold, but because it was a private sale to a secretive royal family, the true amount was not known. Since then, it has been revealed through a lawsuit that it sold for $210 million, about $90 million less than what was originally thought.
#5. Jackson Pollock’s “Number 17A” rounds out the top five list, selling for $200 million to the same buyer who purchased “Interchange”, Kenneth Griffin.
While Banksy’s “Laugh Now” doesn’t rise to level of excess seen in the top 5, it certainly sets the tone for artwork going forward, opening up a whole new craze for art lovers to partake in.
By Julianne Geiger for SafeHaven.com
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