Baloo, Mowgli and King Louie of the Apes from Disney film "The Jungle Book" all feature in a print by anonymous graffiti artist Banksy that sold for over $120,000 at auction Tuesday.
The work, "Save or Delete Jungle Book," went under the hammer alongside works by other urban artists as part of an Urban Art sale at Bonhams auction house in London.
The image was originally commissioned by Greenpeace for a poster campaign highlighting the problem of deforestation, with the characters transposed onto an image of a devastated forest. But the posters were never circulated due to copyright issues with Disney.
"Save or Delete Jungle Book," the start lot, achieved £78,000 ($122,000), the highest sale price at the auction. The other notable sales were both Banksy pieces, "Portrait of an Artist" (1998) which went for £60,000 ($93,500) and a canvas depicting a tanks that sold for £42,000 ($65,500).
Street art is an ephemeral art form, disappearing as quickly as it appears -- urban art is an attempt to redress this by leaving a more permanent legacy--Auction house specialist Gareth Williams
These high prices indicate Banksy's continuing popularity. The anarchic street artist, who numbers Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp among his many fans, is famous for stenciled graffiti on buildings and walls across the globe, including the controversial West Bank barrier in Israel.
Bonhams contemporary art specialist Gareth Williams says the high prices also show the healthy state of the market for urban art, which he defines as a more permanent version of street art.
"I think when the recession kicked in, it was a difficult time for all contemporary art, but urban art, because it was such a new market, was badly affected initially," Williams said. The market has "found its feet, it's got steadier" since then, according to Williams.
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