According to a report on BBC online this morning, the Banksy artwork ‘Slave Labour’ was indeed offered for auction last night at an exhibition and sale organised by Sincura Group.

Street art with a frame on it? Fuck off.

If true, this sale is in direct contradiction to claims made on Sincura’s own website dating back to early May that the work was not for sale and that Sincura was making no money from exhibiting it.

The highlights of the BBC story are that the reserve price for the work was £900,000 and that if it failed to make that reserve, it would be sold to a private collector in the US. On the day of the sale several replicas of the work appeared on polystyrene boards outside the PoundLand store in Wood Green from where ‘Slave Labour’ was taken.

At the time of writing there was no news about the outcome of last night’s Sincura event.

Sincura has not responded to my email request for clarification about their involvement with ‘Slave Labour’.

Update, June 5th.

So it seems that Banksy’s ‘Slave Labour’ was actually sold at Sincura Group’s art sale on Sunday for £750,000 — not bad for something someone chipped off a wall a few months ago.

There is currently no news of the identity of the buyer.

It seems the sale was legal. That doesn’t stop it being venal and squalid.