British street artist Banksy will donate the proceeds from the auction of one of his works, valued at over $1 million, to a Palestinian hospital, one of his collaborators told AFP on Monday.
Titled “Mediterranean Sea View 2017,” the work is to be auctioned Tuesday at Sotheby’s in London, said Wissam Salsaa, director of the Walled Off Hotel which Banksy helped set up in 2017 in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
#Banksy weighs in on #Trump's wall? A new mystery mural in #Bethlehem #palestine https://t.co/BeCgZixWll pic.twitter.com/iDvj3z6XKr
— Riad Kaced (@riadkaced) August 6, 2017
The work comprises three oil paintings depicting views of raging seas and shoreline littered with orange life jackets and buoys, alluding “to the lives lost at sea during the European migrant ‘crisis’ of the 2010s”, according to the description on the Sotheby’s site.
The work, which used to hang in the entry of the hotel, is valued at $1.5 million, according to Salsaa.
All the proceeds will go to a hospital in Bethlehem to build an acute stroke unit and buy children’s rehabilitation equipment, Sotheby’s said.
@banksy mural creating lot of interest @WTM_London for Palestine.#palestine@Palestine_UN pic.twitter.com/YjjquLWfKt
— Mark Stratton (@MarkofDartmoor) November 6, 2018
In May, a new work by Banksy paying tribute to Britain’s health service and medics battling the novel coronavirus pandemic was installed in a hospital in southern England.
It will later be auctioned to raise money for charities connected to the country’s National Health Service (NHS).
The artist, whose true identity remains a secret, has unveiled multiple works in Bethlehem, home of his Walled Off Hotel where all rooms overlook a concrete section of the barrier built by Israel to cut off the West Bank from its territory.
(Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, PC, Social Media)
I’m very proud for these artists. Not all heroes are wearing a cape. You guys are awesome!