Mark Hoppus sells rare Banksy for millions at Sotheby’s auction
Sotheby’s ‘Modern and Contemporary Evening Sale’ kicked off on March 4th, 2025, in London. It generated £62.5 million, which was only around £4 million lower than its highest estimate. The auction included the sale of a rare Banksy previously owned by Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus.
Only four of the works failed to sell, meaning that 90 per cent of the works sold by lot. Included in the auction were 38 lots, half of which had never hit an auction before.
The night was led by auctioneer Oliver Barker, whose highlight was Lisa Brice’s After Embah (2018), sold at £5.4 million after a ten-minute bidding battle between two women present and a telephone bidder. This was followed by Yoshitomo Nara’s Cosmic Eyes (2005) painting which sold for £9 million.
Another star of the show was Banksy’s hand-paid Crude Oil, which was owned by Blink-182 singer Mark Hoppus and sold for £4.3 million. The painting is a remix of the late Jack Vettriano’s beach scene, The Singing Butler. The Scottish painter Vettriano passed away just last week.
Hoppus previously said of the painting, “We loved this painting since the moment we saw it. Unmistakably Banksy, but different.” Since then, it has hung in his home as part of his private art collection before he chose to sell it with part of the proceeds going to charity.
He told Sotheby’s, “We bought it because we loved it. It’s borne witness to our family over these past dozen years. It hung over the table in London, where we ate breakfast and our son did his homework. It hung in our living room in Los Angeles. It’s seen laughter and tears and parties and arguments. Our son has grown up in front of it.”
Overall, according to Sotheby’s CEO Charlie Stewart, the auction was a booming success. “This evening’s tone felt different; it was positive,” he said.
This comes as Sotheby’s has been facing difficulties for some time, with multiple rounds of corporate restructuring and layoffs, also amidst a geopolitical crisis.
