Original Banksy "most expensive artwork" ever to go on sale in the Channel Islands

Monday 19 June 2023

An original Banksy which has gone on sale at a Jersey gallery for £500,000 is believed to be the "most expensive artwork ever to go on sale in the Channel Islands".

'I wanted wine women and song. I got a drunk woman singing.' was created by the famed graffiti artist in 2005 using stencilled spray paint, emulsion and plywood.

In typical Banksy style, the piece provides a dry and melancholic social commentary about the disappointment associated with modern life – this time, summarised in the lyric "I wanted wine women and song. I got a drunk woman singing", originally written by comedian Simon Munnery, and reproduced in classical calligraphy.

Timed to coincide with tomorrow’s opening of Banksy’s first official solo exhibition in 14 years at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, the artwork will be shown at Private & Public in Phillips Street, marking the first time a unique work by Banksy has ever been displayed in the island.

It is currently priced at half-a-million pounds – a price-point Private & Public Director Chris Clifford says makes it the most expensive work to be put on sale across the whole of the Channel Islands.

Pictured: The certificate of authenticity for "Wine Women and Song" from Banksy's company, Pest Control. 

Having previously been on display at the MOCO museum in Amsterdam during the mid-2010s, the piece was purchased by a Jersey-based collector on 19 October 2018 via a broker in London from a private Swiss collector.

The piece comes with a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control, a private body set up by Bansky himself in 2006 and the only body with the authority to authenticate Bansky's work.  

Pictured top: "I wanted wine women and song. I got a drunk woman singing" by Banksy.