Banksy sells above its top estimates at Christie's. Why buyers should take note

Christie's online Prints and Multiples sale closed yesterday, 24 September, and the Banksy lots we named in advance all sold. Three of them sold above the top of their estimate once the buyer's fees were added.

A signed Flower Thrower Triptych, numbered 92 of 300, made £153,600 against an estimate of £100,000 to £150,000. A signed Bomb Love, numbered 13 of 150, made £64,000 against £30,000 to £60,000. Stop and Search, numbered 78 of 500, made £33,280 against £20,000 to £30,000.

All prices here include the buyer's fees, which is how auction results are normally reported. The estimates do not include fees, so part of the gap above each estimate is the fees themselves. Even so, the bidding in each case went well past the low estimate, and buyers competed to the top of every range.

The Flower Thrower Triptych drew the headlines, but the signed Bomb Love tells you more. Its 2025 median was £33,745. Yesterday's £64,000 is almost double that.

Signed Bomb Love is an edition of only 150 and comes up rarely, so one result should be read with care. But when a scarce signed print sells at close to twice last year's level, it shows that buyers are waiting for good copies and are willing to pay for them when they appear.

The Flower Thrower Triptych is Banksy's most important recent edition, a set of three signed screenprints released through his Gross Domestic Product shop in 2019. Another copy made £177,800 at Christie's in March, and yesterday's £153,600 keeps the price for 2026 well above last year's.

The 2026 median for the signed Triptych now stands at £165,700, 34 per cent above the 2025 median of £123,825. Its record is £330,000, set in March 2021, so today's price is still under half the peak. That gap is the reason to buy now. Prices have come down to a sensible level, and they are now moving up.

A market finds its floor when sellers bring good works to auction and buyers compete for them at or above the auction house's own view of their value. That is what happened yesterday.

It is not an isolated sale. Earlier this month a signed Girl with Balloon made £204,800 at Sotheby's, 12 per cent above last year's median, and an unsigned copy made £109,650 at Phillips. Across different auction houses and different prints, the pattern is the same: prices well below 2021, and demand firming from there.

Supply stays fixed. Banksy has released no new editions since 2017, and his authentication body, Pest Control, certifies only works that already exist. Every good copy that sells to a long-term collector leaves fewer for everyone else.

Not every Banksy print is rising. Stop and Search sold above its estimate, but its 2026 median is still slightly below 2025. Signed prints, the best images and works in good condition with full certification are leading. Lesser prints are recovering more slowly.

That is why choosing the right work matters more than timing. A buyer who picks well now is buying close to the floor. A buyer who picks badly can still overpay.

Auction results like these reset what sellers expect. Private owners who read about yesterday's prices will raise their asking prices over the coming weeks. The best time to buy is usually just before the rest of the market catches up.

We can find signed and unsigned Banksy prints with full Pest Control certification, priced against yesterday's results, and give you an honest view of what each one should cost.