Banksy’s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape Sells for $18 Million

Posted by Donna on 21st May, 2026
Filed under: From the Street

Banksy’s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape has officially entered the top tier of the artist’s auction history after selling for US $18 million (£13.3 million) during Wednesday’s Fair Warning auction held at Tiffany & Co.’s Landmark store in New York.

The result places the work among the three highest auction prices ever achieved for a Banksy artwork, further reinforcing the artist’s position as one of the most culturally significant contemporary figures of the twenty-first century.

The US $18 million result further cements Banksy’s position at the highest end of the contemporary art market, where the artist’s rarest works now command prices once reserved for blue-chip modern masters. Image copyright Fair Warning.

Part of Banksy’s celebrated Crude Oils series, the painting reimagines a traditional pastoral oil painting through the addition of the artist’s iconic balloon motif, transforming an otherwise modest vintage landscape into something emotionally charged, melancholic, and instantly recognisable.

Banksy’s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape. Image copyright Fair Warning auction

Bidding remained intense throughout the evening before the work ultimately achieved its US $18 million high estimate, including buyer’s premium, following a phone battle that ended with the painting selling to an anonymous US bidder.

Banksy’s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape. Image copyright Fair Warning auction

The US $18 million price for Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape also reshapes the ranking of Banksy’s highest auction results, pushing Sunflowers From Petrol Station, another major work from the artist’s celebrated Crude Oils series, outside the top three most valuable Banksy works sold at auction. The painting previously sold at Christie’s New York in 2021 for £10.7 million ($14.5 million).

Here is the current ranking of Banksy’s three highest auction results.

3. Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape

Banksy’s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape entered the upper tier of the artist’s auction history after achieving a realised price of $17.94 million (£13.3 million) at Fair Warning in New York in 2026.

Part of Banksy’s celebrated Crude Oils series, the painting transforms a vintage pastoral scene through the addition of the artist’s iconic balloon motif, creating one of the most recognisable images in contemporary art.

The result officially places the work among the three highest auction prices ever achieved for a Banksy artwork.

Banksy’s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape. Image copyright Fair Warning auction

2. Game Changer

Banksy’s Game Changer became one of the defining artworks of the COVID-19 era.

The work depicts a child choosing a nurse as their superhero while Batman and Spider-Man sit discarded nearby, transforming a simple image into a tribute to healthcare workers during the pandemic.

First displayed at University Hospital Southampton, the painting later appeared at Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale in London in 2021, where it sold for £16.8 million ($23,1 million), with proceeds supporting NHS charities.

Game Changer (2020) by Banksy. Image © Christie’s London 2021.

1. Love Is in the Bin

No Banksy sale has reshaped the contemporary auction world quite like Love Is in the Bin.

Originally sold as Girl with Balloon during Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London in 2018, the artwork partially shredded itself moments after the hammer fell, instantly becoming one of the most infamous moments in auction history. Rather than destroying the work, the performance transformed it into something entirely new.

When the piece returned to Sotheby’s London in 2021, it sold for a record breaking £18.6 million ($25.4 million), almost twenty times its original sale price.

Why Banksy’s Girl with Balloon Still Resonates Globally

First appearing on a London wall in 2002, Girl with Balloon quickly established itself as one of Banksy’s most iconic images. The drifting red heart, weightless and just out of reach, came to symbolise hope, loss, and longing in a way that continues to resonate across generations.

In the two decades since, the image has long outgrown its street art origins, embedding itself within the wider visual language of contemporary art as one of the defining symbols of the twenty-first century.

Steve Lazarides – Balloon Fight (Flight)

Discover Available Banksy Editions

Explore our curated selection of available Banksy artworks at our gallery in Chichester, England, browse the full selection online, or contact us directly for private enquiries and collector guidance.

Available works currently include Nola (Blue/Green), Grin Reaper, Trolleys (B&W), Stop & Search, Choose Your Weapon (Silver), (Khaki) and Soup Can (Banana/Lime/Purple) among other sought-after Banksy Editions and collectables connected to key moments within Banksy’s practice.

Section of Banksy Editions at GraffitiStreet Gallery, Chichester, England. Image copyright GraffitiStreet

Please browse the full selection of Banksy’s editions and collectables online through GraffitiStreet.