Image: Sotheby’s – Mediterranean sea view 2017 – Banksy
Anyone watching the news and familiar with art will have heard of Banksy. The British artist has been known for years without really being known and the mysticism around his personality regularly gets new attention through sudden new creations. Banksy’s latest achievement comes in the form of this triptych auctioned at Sotheby’s.
Where the masses often think that Banksy only wants to shock and his Street Art is nothing more than a cry for attention, the enthusiast and connoisseur knows that Banksy does convey a strong message within the art community. Time and again the Brit knows how to capture a social dimension with his works of art and that is no different with this triptych called ‘Mediterranean Sea View 2017’.
The three paintings were originally made for the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, in the Palestinian territories. The hotel is also a project of Banksy and it was also the place where the triptych was exhibited to the public for quite some time. Now the paintings have been auctioned off by auction house Sotheby’s to raise a small €2.5 million (GBP 2,235,000).
The work of art is inspired by the migration problems that attracted a great deal of attention in 2017. The paintings clearly show how the sea washes up mountains of life jackets. It illustrates clearly how the southern European countries around the Mediterranean Sea had to deal with very sad situations. A crisis that, by the way, affected the whole world. In 2017 more than 3,000 migrants and refugees lost their lives trying to reach Italy, Spain, Greece and Cyprus by boat.
The proceeds of the triptych will be donated in full to the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation Hospital, and more specifically to the new department for people recovering from a stroke and to the purchase of rehabilitation equipment for children.
Earlier this year, Banksy also donated a painting to an NHS hospital in Southampton as a tribute to the medical staff for their work during the corona crisis.
