Artworld connoisseurs love to hate Banksy, but the anonymous street artist’s power lies in the fact that he doesn’t need their support. Indeed, his market is booming. In October, Show Me the Monet, a take on the impressionist painter’s Water Lilies series, sold for a record £7.5m at auction. Prints Banksy stopped making in 2010 now command six-figure sums. Against establishment antipathy, others have reason to appreciate mystery-man’s success. In the summer MV Louise Michel was launched, a former French Customs boat refitted as a search-and-rescue vessel to assist migrants in peril on the Mediterranean, funded and decorated by Banksy. An exhibition of photographs of the artist’s work in Palestine was unveiled in August, a gesture recognising the diversified tourism to the state his stencil work has brought. One looming problem: in September the artist lost his battle to trademark his designs, in part because of his anonymity.
The ArtReview Power 100 is presented by BMW Group Culture