Banksy's guerilla graffiti work goes under the hammer » Communities » 24dash.com

Works by the guerilla graffiti artist Banksy will go under the hammer at Sotheby's today.

The prestigious auction house expects the seven pieces to sell for tens of thousands of pounds each.

Bombing Middle England, made from acrylic and spraypaint on canvas, is the most highly valued, at £30,000-£50,000.

It depicts boules players apparently tossing bombs across a lawn.

A painted figurine of a girl wearing a gas mask, entitled Ballerina With Action Man Parts, could sell for £20,000.

The works are typical of Banksy's anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-establishment stance, Sotheby's said.

Four pieces will go under the hammer at the auctioneer's Olympia, west London, sales room today.

The remaining three will be sold at the New Bond Street site tomorrow.

Famed for creating politicised stencils on the walls of public buildings, Banksy's identity has never officially been revealed.

His high-profile stunts have included painting "I want out" inside the elephant enclosure and a painting of a ladder on the partition wall in Israel's West Bank.

The artist now has a celebrity following in Brad Pitt and last month, thieves stole a wall featuring a Banksy drawing from Paddington, London, and attempted to sell it online.

This is the second time Banksy's work has been sold at Sotheby's.

Two pieces, Mona Lisa, and a series of prints of the supermodel Kate Moss fetched more than £50,000 each in an auction last October.

Cheyenne Westphal, chairman of Contemporary Art at Sotheby's Europe, explained: "He has an unnerving ability to get to the heart of the matter and is able to express strong political statements with poetry, energy and humour."

The auctions follow a record-breaking day for the auction house.

On Monday, sales at Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art sale in central London topped £100 million, making a new European record.

Copyright Press Association 2007