A Banksy mural of a man hanging out of a bedroom window as he tries to evade his love rival is being sold at auction with the building it is painted on.
Titled Well Hung Lover, it was painted on the wall of a sexual health clinic in Bristol, UK, in 2006. Banksy, who is from the city, said he wasn’t aware of the building’s coincidental use at the time.
Real estate agent Hollis Morgan is auctioning the property – and therefore the artwork – with a new 250-year lease next year.
The Grade II-listed Georgian building has five floors and is located close to Bristol Cathedral and the University of Bristol. A nightclub operates in the basement. Hollis Morgan is promoting the property’s potential to be converted into student apartments.
As for the fate of the artwork, the real estate agent pointed to the fact that Bristol city council has no official policy on street art, no matter who it is by.
“It is recognised that street art is created not as a permanent work of art but as a form of protest which is usually, but not always, created illegally and without the permission of the owner of the building,” Hollis Morgan told the Guardian. “As such, the life of any image as a work of art will evolve and change over time depending on how the work weathers or indeed is subsequently painted over or removed.”
The property’s guide price is just under $900,000. Given Banksy’s most expensive work ever sold at auction went for more than $23.5 million (Love is in the Bin), the estimate looks like a bargain. However, any potential buyers hoping to purchase the building so they can sell the Banksy will have to think again.
Hollis Morgan added, “Accordingly the purchaser will be required to accept a restrictive covenant in the lease ensuring that the image cannot be removed from the building, however, the vendor will not require a positive obligation on the purchaser to maintain the artwork or insure it for as long as it shall remain visible and in place on the building.”