A painting by the artist Banksy sold at auction Thursday evening for $615,000. The piece, titled “The Banality of the Banality of Evil” (an homage to the writer/philosopher Hannah Arendt), features a Nazi soldier in full garb looking onto a serene mountain lake landscape.
At the website banksyny.com, which chronicles the street artist’s month-long residency in New York City, the artist describes the piece as “A thrift store painting vandalised then re-donated to the thrift store.” Banksy bought the original oil painting by K. Sager for $50 at a Housing Works thrift shop in Manhattan, then embellished it with the nazi soldier sitting on a bench, before donating it back to the store on October 29.
Bidding started for the oil on canvas piece at $74,000.