The owner of two New York City-made Banksy pieces that failed to sell at an auction Tuesday will lower the prices of the street art — and other owners should, too, he said.
At the next auction, Manhattan gallerist Stephan Keszler will set the minimum bid for “Bandaged Heart” — a spray-painted balloon heart on a chunk of cement — to less than $360,000, he said Wednesday.
“We have adjusted the reserve price accordingly,” Keszler said, declining to say how much he’ll ask for.
The artwork raked in less than expected — just $250,000 at Fine Art Auctions Miami. A second New York-made piece, “Crazy Horse Car Door,” garnered only $145,000 instead of an expected $200,000.
Keszler — who has spent $10,000 on truck fees, gas and two forklifts to transport the 1,500-pound “Bandaged Heart” — advised other owners of New York City-made Banskys to lower prices, too.
“[My gallery] has spoken to seven or eight New York owners and most of them have had price ideas that were ridiculous. I’m happy price-point standards are more realistic now,” he said.
The low bidders in Miami had a lot to do with luck, he claimed.
“It depends always who’s there [at the auction] and who is not there on any given day,” he said.
Keszler paid to carefully remove “Bandaged Heart,” which the elusive street artist painted on the side of a building in Red Hook in October.
“Crazy Horse Car Door” was part of a larger installation in the Lower East Side.