Banksy's renowned stab-proof vest adorned with the Union Jack flag, famously worn by rapper Stormzy during his 2019 Glastonbury headline performance, has been auctioned in London for £780,000 (€932,000). This vest was one of five crafted by the enigmatic British street artist and was initially estimated to sell for £300,000 (€360,000). It is part of Banksy's Gross Domestic Product homeware collection, which debuted in a Croydon shopfront in 2019 to critique the commercialization of the Banksy brand.
In 2020, the Stormzy vest was shortlisted for the Beazley Design of the Year award and was later donated to the Design Museum in London by the rapper. Emma Baker, Sotheby's head of contemporary evening sale, commented, “This reinterpretation of a modern police-issue armor, made iconic by Stormzy's legendary Glastonbury performance, showcases Banksy at his finest.” She added, “Banksy skillfully encapsulates a complex social issue through a single evocative object, making this artwork more relevant now than when it first appeared at Glastonbury.”
Banksy designed the provocative stab-proof vest to highlight social and political tensions in the UK. The vest, which repurposes the Union Jack's visual and cultural significance to reflect experiences of racism and violence, also addresses the rising knife crime in contemporary Britain. The vest was sold during Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction and was on display at the New Bond Street Galleries from October 3-9.
This sale occurred nearly six years after Banksy disrupted a Sotheby's auction in 2018, when his piece ‘Girl with Balloon’ self-destructed as the auctioneer's hammer fell. The ‘destroyed’ artwork, rebranded as ‘Love is in the Bin,’ became a unique piece of performance art, marking the first instance of an artwork being created during a live auction. In 2021, the altered artwork was resold for a record £18.6 million (€22.3m).
Last month, London police arrested two men on burglary charges after another ‘Girl with Balloon’ was stolen from a gallery in the capital.
