Banksy mural fetches $209K at auction

Associated Press

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

A mural stenciled on the side of a Hollywood gas station five years ago by the British street artist Banksy has fetched more than $200,000 at a Beverly Hills auction.

The 9-by-8-foot “Flower Girl” artwork sold for $209,000 on Thursday at an auction that featured nearly 100 works by more than 30 artists, according to the Los Angeles Times. The winning bid came from a Los Angeles buyer who requested anonymity.

The mural shows a little girl holding a flower basket under the eye of a surveillance camera planted atop a tall stalk.

The seller of the mural was Eytan Rosenberg, former owner of a gas station, who had allowed a group of three street artists to paint something on its white brick wall.

Rosenberg sold the gas station last year and painstakingly removed the artwork and installed it in a sturdy aluminum frame. He and his sister want to use the money from the sale to build a car wash.