Julien's Auctions will offer Banksy's Flower Girl, a mural originally painted on a wall in Los Angeles, as part of its Street Art auction on December 5 in Beverly Hills.
 With Banksy less known in the US, this sale is unlikely to be rocked by the same controversy as the auction of his Slave Labour |
The sale comes on the heels of the controversial $1.1m sale of the artist's Slave Labour, which was removed from a London street in 2012, much to the chagrin of the local residents.
Flower Girl formerly occupied a Los Angeles gas station wall. The sale represents the first time a public work by Banksy has been offered at auction in America, yet Banksy is far from enamoured with the sale's glamorous location.
"Hollywood is a town where they honour their heroes by writing their names on the pavement to be walked on by fat people and peed on by dogs. It seemed like a great place to come and be ambitious," he once said in a typically provocative statement.
"Banksy is not only provocative but quite entertaining," said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien's Auctions. "It makes it quite fun to offer his art along with so many other great artists of our time".
Flower Girl will be joined by host of top works from the likes of Shepard Fairey, Risk, MearsOne, Cope2, Indie 184, Milner I and Chaze, giving collectors the opportunity to "expand their portfolios to include blue chip urban art."
Shepard Fairey, the man responsible for the "OBEY" sticker campaign and the Obama "Hope" posters, often outsells Banksy in US auctions, with his Panther Power selling as top lot at Bonhams' Los Angeles Urban Art auction in 2012.
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