Banksy rat pictures set to fetch up to £120,000 at auction

Works by the street artist going under the hammer include a Placard Rat, and a Gangsta Rat on a bollard.

A street bollard in Edinburgh with a painting of a photographer rat by Banksy

A number of Banksy’s rat pictures are expected to fetch up to £120,000 as they go up for auction alongside an array of works by other pioneering street artists.

The collection includes one of Banksy’s Placard Rats, which was originally sprayed on to a newsagent’s board in London’s Gray’s Inn Road in 2004.

The work was created in the hope that passers-by would add their own message to it but the one on offer has remained untouched and is expected to sell for between £30,000 and £40,000.

One of Banksy's Placard Rats holding up a blank sign — One of Banksy’s Placard Rats is among the lots in the auction (Julien’s Auctions/PA)

Another Banksy work on offer is an Edinburgh street bollard which was tagged with a Gangsta Rat holding a boombox in 2009 and is expected to fetch between £20,000 and £40,000.

The collection of Banksy works is rounded off with an Umbrella Rat, which was sprayed on to a large steel door in an S-Bahn station in Berlin’s Mitte area in 2004. It is expected to go for between £20,000 and £40,000.

A British street bollard with one of Banksy's rats sprayed on to it — An Edinburgh street bollard with a Gangsta Rat sprayed on to it is among the Banksy works up for sale (Julien’s Auctions/PA)

The Bristol-based artist has kept his identity unknown since he began working with stencils in the 1990s.

Since then he has caught the public eye with installations such as the Dismaland theme park he opened in Weston-Super-Mare in 2015 and most recently a tree mural in the London Borough of Islington.

Other works going under the hammer on Thursday July 11 as part of Julien’s Auctions Street Art Invasion sale in Los Angeles include a Money Bag mosaic created by Invader, which was affixed to the side of a building in Hong Kong in 2015 and is expected to fetch between £8,000 and £10,000.

An alien mosaic thought to be one of Invader’s earliest works is also on offer and is expected to sell for between £4,500 and £6,500.

A pixilated money bag created by street artist invader — Invader’s pixilated Money Bag is among the items on offer in the Street Art Invasion sale (Julien’s Auctions/PA)

Works by activist, DJ and skateboarder Shepard Fairey, best known for his Barack Obama Hope poster, are also up for sale, including his Hand Of Doom – Sound Of Music piece, an aerosol stencil sprayed on to the back of a discarded record sleeve.

Anyone wishing to bid on the lots must register before the sale by emailing info@juliensauctions.com.