Banksy's Subject to Availability painting is up for sale, the auction house Christie's has announced.
The painting, which highlights the climate crisis, is expected to raise between £3 million and £5 million. It is a parody of another painting, Albert Bierstadt's Mount Rainier, a panorama of the Seattle national park and volcano, which was first painted in 1890.
Banksy's version closely resembles Bierstadt's original, except the Bristol artist has inserted an asterisk next to the volcano. That asterisk leads to a note at the bottom of the painting, stating: "Subject to availability for a limited period only."
Christie's explains: "The sweeping panorama … is reduced to a fleeting commodity."
"Subject to Availability therefore took its place among a new group of paintings that held a mirror up to society’s self-destructive tendencies."
The painting was first shown in Banksy versus Bristol Museum, the 2009 exhibition here in Bristol which also gave us Devolved Parliament and other politically motivated works.
Subject to Availability is on display at Christie's in London until May 7 as part of the Off the Wall: Basquiat to Banksy exhibition. It will be auctioned in June.
