Brangelina Spend Bank on Banksy at London Gay Bar
A sale of contemporary art at London's Shadow Lounge held by gallery owner Steve Lazarides drew a crowd of nearly 100 collectors, including absentee bidders Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who swept up one of the works by Banksy, perhaps the "Rat with Roller" graffiti image seen above which was loaded on to a truck and shipped off after the show.
The Shadow Lounge auction is one of many alternatives to the simultaneous Frieze Art Fair which features auctions by major houses Christie's and Sotheby's. Shadow Lounge is normally a dark, smoke-filled gay bar filled with shirtless men and go-go boys.
The Times Online reports: "Conceived as an irreverent shot across the bows of the art establishment, The Soho Auction is the brainchild of the photographer-turned-gallerist Steve Lazarides. Mr Lazarides has flourished in the past few years thanks to his representation of artists including Banksy and Antony Micallef, the emerging talent from Brighton whose show in Los Angeles this summer sold out for $6.5 million (£3.2 million) in two hours. 'The idea is to inject a little anarchy back into the staid, serious business of buying art,' Mr Lazarides said. 'It will be an evening of booze and burlesque, with the odd bit of extremely desirable art thrown in.'...The sale in question includes three Andy Warhols (combined guide price, £390,000), a Basquiat collage (£800,000), three new Damien Hirst paintings (£925,000) and works by Banksy, the celebrated anonymous graffiti artist."
Posted Oct. 12,2007 at 9:22 AM EST by Andy Towle in Art and Design, Auctions, Banksy, Brad Pitt, London, News | Permalink
There is a smoking ban in place in the UK now, so the Shadow Lounge is not "smoke-filled" anymore! hehe
Posted by: FrenchBen | Oct 12, 2007 9:34:37 AM
brad needs to be MY shirtless, go-go boy. he has to. can someone tell him?
that man only gets better.
Posted by: nic | Oct 12, 2007 9:41:45 AM
Frenchben, that's excellent. Last time I was there, I nearly choked to death.
Posted by: andy | Oct 12, 2007 9:46:27 AM
Ah yes, nothing says "anarchy" and "irreverent" like £5+ million worth of artwork bought up by anonymous multimillionaires....
Posted by: aardvark | Oct 12, 2007 10:54:11 AM
Yes, Andy, the smoking ban makes a HUGE difference -- along with the choking, one\\\\\\\'s cleaning bills were ridiculous! A night out always meant a $20 bill for the hotel to clean my jeans LOL
I\\\\\\\'m glad to see Shadow Lounge was the venue for this -- I\\\\\\\'ve always had a great time there (most recently three months ago) and I can only imagine how fun it was to be there with the art.
Now I just cross my fingers and hope one of the starving artists whose work I\\\\\\\'ve bought in the past two decades gets famous -- my god those prices are amazing. One cdould almost sell one painting from a collection and retire...
Posted by: Becks07 | Oct 12, 2007 11:06:30 AM
brad is looking more and more like a "butch lesbian" each day.....
Posted by: alan brickman | Oct 12, 2007 6:02:52 PM
i must be a lesbian, then.
Posted by: nic | Oct 12, 2007 7:32:28 PM
warhol, basquiat, and hirst are the most thoroughly commodified, non-irreverent art in the world right now, the art world equivalents of cigarettes in prison.
If Lazarides and Banksy really wanted to be anarchic, they should do something that destroys the market value of the works, like setting them on fire, putting them on the dance floor--or painting Banksy's trite crap on top. See if Banksy's auction prices can surpass those of the Warhol he defaces.
Posted by: greg.org | Oct 13, 2007 10:52:01 AM