Red8 Gallery has announced another move for the Banksy mural, Valentine’s Day Mascara, from Yamaha Music London to the new Yield Gallery venue in Eastcastle Street, London.
The work is being moved to Yield Gallery for its opening exhibition on October 3 and will remain there for the month.
It is understood that discussions are taking place with a potential buyer for the piece. If this does not complete then it is expected to return to Margate by the end of November while a buyer is sought.
In August it was revealed the artwork could go to auction following an approach by ‘a community of art collectors.’
Banksy’s Valentine’s Day Mascara originally appeared on a property in Margate’s Park Place on February 13 last year. The piece was then removed the following month, overseen by Red Eight Gallery which was called in by the artist owners of the property to deal with preservation and sale of the work.
The removal process cost £195,000.
It was taken to Dreamland and unveiled in June 2023, with an announcement that August that the park would be the permanent home of the artwork following a decision to sell it by issuing shares.
Showpiece announced a ‘fractional ownership’ plan for the piece, which has been valued at £6 million, with 27,000 shares costing £120 each.
Last September the piece, which weighs some 3.8 tonnes, was on the move to be shown as one of the 110 works in the Art Of Banksy exhibition at Regent Street.
At that time Dreamland bosses said: “We anticipate that the artwork will return to Margate to take up its place in Dreamland again in early 2024.”
However, the art – a comment on domestic violence which shows a woman with a swollen shut eye and missing tooth with a man’s legs poking out from a chest freezer, alongside an upturned chair – then went on show at the Yamaha store in London in early 2024 and remained there until this latest move.
This summer Showpiece contacted ‘fractional’ owners ask them to vote whether to sell the piece and said a full sale would mean Thanet-based charity Oasis Domestic Abuse Service will receive £100,000 from the proceeds.
Julian Usher, from Red8 Gallery, said: “Red8 Gallery is pleased to announce that this amazing art piece that raises the awareness around domestic abuse is being moved from Yamaha Music London in Wardour Street to Yield Gallery in Eastcastle Street for their opening exhibition on Thursday 3rd October.
“Red8 Gallery and the owners of this piece would like to extend their thanks to Yamaha Music London for providing an amazing venue enabling the installation to reach a wider audience and for helping raise awareness of the charity, Oasis Domestic Abuse Services Margate.
“The piece will stay at Yield Gallery for October and the director and team invite people to come and see it and visit their new flagship Gallery at 56-57 Eastcastle Street, London.
“We would all like to wish Yield Gallery the best of luck for their new venture and we are pleased to support it.”
The funding for Oasis is earmarked to be used by the charity for preventative work aimed particularly at young people.
The sale of Valentine’s Day Mascara has previously been problematic. Most UK auction houses will not take it on because Banksy’s Pest Control – the only official organisation responsible for the authentication of his artworks and the issuing of certificates of authenticity – has not issued paperwork for it.
Why does this act of vandalism get so much attention, literally should be arrested for fly tipping and vandalism..
This joke is wearing as thin as Emin’s sheets.
And there are too many broken promises of it being returned to Dreamland.
It seems that those who invested in shares for it to remain local have been conned.
its all about money at the end of day peter , i think margate needs more than a brick wall with grafitti on it ? unless theres a considerable stash of money we dont know about
see my original comment didnt make the cut then.. its vandalism, pure and simple
It was in moderation, I’ve just checked comments now
thank you,.
Everything in moderation,Kathy!
Over Beachy Head hopefully.
You’d have to assume that in the absence of the “pest control “ paperwork it’s not a banksy and so pretty much worthless ( to the extent any paperless sale wouldn’t cover the initial removal costs, subsequent transportation costs or an auctioneers costs) all of which might be a part of the point behind the piece, that a single piece of paper is worth 6 million and the artist has the discretion to grant it at which point the value becomes more important than the “art” and the point it’s trying to make. It’d be another “performance” if pest control did issue a certificate and then an eventual buyer destroyed the work on the basis that the certificate is where the value lies and how this reflects on societies attitudes.
The “Point behind the piece” Highpoint, which seems to have been missed by most people, is the play on words by Banksy! In 30’s Chicago era, there was a shoot out between rival gangs leading to many deaths, on St Valentines Day. This was dubbed the “Valentines Day Massacre” therefore the lady pictured has a black eye due to domestic violence ergo “Valentines Day Mascara” geddit!
we know, its been mentioned a zillion times on the last 10 posts about this piece of junk
Your wrong banksy fan, I drew attention to this play on words when the mural was first painted, so anyone else mentioning it, and I haven’t seen any, is copying me!
You’re right Banksy; although it’s bleedin’ obvious what the point of the piece is!
It’s ‘worth’ whatever anyone’s prepared to pay for it!
Who is the actual legal owner of this piece? and why won’t the Banksy authentication authority 🤣 ‘Pest Control’ issue a certificate?
Is this all a hoax and not even a Banksy? Not an Emin effort is it?
This all sounds like a big scam to make money for greedy twits.