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Sale Ends, 2006-2017

BY

Sale Ends (Version 2), 2017
Edition: 500 signed

Sale Ends (LA Edition) portrays a group of four cloaked individuals starkly outlined in Banksy’s signature black-and-white stenciled style on a white background. The individuals are in various states of praying and worshipping the sign and are dressed in clothing reminiscent of the lamenting figures typically seen at the base of the crucifixion in Renaissance paintings. The bold red sign reading “SALE ENDS TODAY” evokes typical shop signs designed to catch attention and encourage people to purchase products they would not necessarily need, in an obvious critique of our materialistic society.

 

Sale Ends (LA Edition), 2017
Editions: 150 signed, 100 unsigned
Through this work, Banksy points at the near-religious fervor with which contemporary society regards consumerism. The image can be interpreted as an ironic statement on the glorified, hegemonic status of capitalism and the market, commenting on the nearly religious nature of sales and of consumer goods worshipped by the masses.
 

With its careful balance of satire and tradition, this work shows Banksy at the height of his creative talent. The people in Sale Ends seem to be mourning the last day of the sale while simultaneously worshipping capitalism, making this an important piece of criticism as well as a striking work of art.

RELEASE HISTORY

Sale Ends was first created in 2006 for Barely Legal, Banksy‘s seminal US exhibition which took place in a warehouse in Los Angeles in September 2006. Banksy presented the work as a large size original on canvas as well as a series of prints.
Part of the Barely Legal Set, Sale Ends was originally printed as an edition of 100 unsigned prints and sold at the show for $500. The other prints in the series were Festival, Grannies, Applause, Trolleys and Morons. The print was originally intended to be a run of 500, but only 100 were printed by Modern Multiples, yet they are numbered /500.
Sale Ends Today, 2006
Oil on canvas
213.4 x 426.7 cm (84×168 inches)
Christie’s Hong-Kong, 24 May 2021
USD 6,060,000
Sale Ends (Version 2), a reworking of the original 2006 version, was released 11 years later. Pictures On Walls announced in 2017 they had ‘been taken over by venture anti-capitalists and will cease trading from 31st December 2017’. At that occasion, they held a closing down sale, during which they released a few remaining print editions as well as 500 prints of Sale Ends (Version 2). Version 2 added a fifth individual to the glorification and mourning of the ending of the sale, and although they’re posed differently – the message is the same.

DESCRIPTION

Sale Ends (Version 2)

Year: 2017
Medium: Screen-print in colors on Arches wove paper
Size: 56×76 cm (22×30 inches)
Publisher: Pictures on Walls

Edition: 500 signed

Sale Ends (LA Edition)

Year: 2006
LA Edition: 100 unsigned, 6 signed Printer’s Proofs (PP)
Numbered /500 even though only 100 were printed
Signed Edition: 150 signed

AUCTION RESULTS

Updated as of 30 June 2022

 

 

 

1. Sale Ends (version 2)

 

 

Sale Ends (Version 2), 2017
Signed in pencil, lower right
Numbered 340/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong, 21 April 2021
GBP 44,388 / USD 61,700

Sale Ends (Version 2), 2017
Signed in pencil, lower right
Numbered 432/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower left
Christie’s online, 23 September 2021
GBP 40,000 / USD 55,600


2. Sale Ends (LA Edition)

 

 

Sale Ends (LA Edition), 2006
Numbered 51/500 in pencil, lower right
Sotheby’s online, 26 April 2022

GBP 22,680 / USD 28,577

 

Sale Ends (unsigned), 2006
Numbered 120/500 in pencil with the publisher’s blindstamp, lower right
Artnet Auctions, 9 February 2022
USD 37,500

 

Sale Ends (LA Edition), 2006
Numbered 51/500 in pencil, lower right
Sotheby’s online, 17 September 2021

GBP 27,720 / USD 38,531

Sale Ends (LA Edition), 2006
Numbered 84/500 in pencil, lower right
Christie’s online, 23 September 2020
GBP 35,000 / USD 46,200

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