Banksy 2026: Auction Results and News

Banksy's anti-Brexit installation Keep Ou T goes to auction in London on 15 October, estimated at £1.2 million to £1.8 million. It caps a busy 2026 for Banksy. A $17.94 million work on canvas sold in New York, and his prints made up to three times their usual prices, with a record for Applause. A new statue went up in central London, and an investigation claimed to reveal his identity.

Keep Ou T is a painted metal gate from 2019. Banksy's rat has taken the T from KEEP OUT and is using it to break the padlock on a closed border. It is offered in Frieze week.

Banksy auction results in 2026

The top result came in New York on 20 May. Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape is a 2012 work in spray paint on canvas from the Crude Oils series, in which Banksy added his own images to secondhand paintings, and it had never been shown in public. It sold to a telephone bidder for $17.94 million, within its estimate of $13 million to $18 million. Only Love is in the Bin and Game Changer have made more for Banksy at auction, and our guide to Banksy at auction lists the other records.

In London on 25 June, Love Is In The Air (life size), a 2011 canvas of the flower thrower measuring 210 by 210 centimetres, made £6,434,000 against an estimate of £3.5 million to £5.5 million. Earlier in the year, on 5 March, also in London, Happy Choppers, a 2006 canvas of attack helicopters wearing pink bows, made £1.52 million against £1 million to £1.5 million.

The smaller unique works held their estimates. Picasso Quote, a carved marble sculpture from 2009, made £258,000 in London on 16 April against £200,000 to £300,000. Spray Can Flame, painted on cardboard around 2012, made $512,000 in New York on 15 May against $400,000 to $600,000.

Banksy print prices in 2026

Most Banksy owners have a print, and the print results were the bigger surprise. In an online sale in London in March, Applause, which had usually traded at £20,000 to £30,000, reached £96,000 at the hammer, a record for the image. An unsigned Girl with Balloon in the same sale made £90,000 at the hammer, against a usual range of £50,000 to £65,000, and a signed Very Little Helps made £50,000 against an estimate of £18,000. In a second sale that month, a signed Flower Thrower made £177,800 with fees against an estimate of £150,000, and an unsigned Have a Nice Day made £53,340 with fees against £10,000.

In London on 25 June, a signed artist's proof of Kate Moss made £179,200 against a high estimate of £70,000. The standard signed edition has recently traded at £80,000 to £95,000, so the proof made about double.

The autumn print sales began in the last week of September. On 23 September a signed Girl with Balloon made $332,800 in an American sale, and another signed impression made £204,800 online the same day. The next day, a signed Flower Thrower triptych from 2019 made £153,600 online.

Banksy news in 2026

On 13 March, a Reuters investigation claimed to have established Banksy's identity from court records, police files and dozens of interviews. His lawyer replied that Banksy "does not accept that many of the details" were correct. Collectors largely shrugged it off, and the March print sales above closed later the same month.

Banksy is still making new work. In the early hours of 29 April, a Banksy statue appeared on Waterloo Place in St James's, London: a man in a suit stepping off his plinth, blinded by the flag blowing back into his face. Banksy confirmed it with a video the next day, and his own list of works titles it Blind Patriotism. Westminster City Council put fencing around it and kept it open to view.

Blind Patriotism on Waterloo Place, 30 April 2026. Photo: MumphingSquirrel, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What it means if you own a Banksy

The paintings sold within or above their estimates. The prints were less predictable. Some images jumped to two or three times their usual level with no obvious cause, while others sold where they always have. A result like the Applause record is worth knowing about, though it may not repeat, and the only way to know what your print would make now is to look at recent sales of that exact image, signed or unsigned, in comparable condition.

Whatever the image, a Banksy needs a certificate from Pest Control, his authentication body, before any major saleroom will offer it, and our page on Banksy authentication explains why. To see how much a Banksy is worth in 2026, start with the price guide or the Banksy price calculator. How to sell a Banksy sets out the routes to market and what each one costs.