LONDON, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A Banksy artwork painted on the wall outside a financially-stressed youth club was sold to a private collector for 403,000 pounds ($668,000), saving the club.
The piece, titled Mobile Lovers, shows a couple embracing while staring their cellphones. The painting, attached to a piece of wood, appeared in April on the wall of the Broad Plain Working with Young People in Bristol.
Soon after it appeared, police removed it and put it on display in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery until ownership was determined. Banksy settled the dispute himself when he wrote a letter to the club saying that it could have it.
The piece was sold in an auction to an unidentified buyer.
"We're ecstatic. Four hundred and three thousand pounds got into our bank account when we had nothing in it to begin is a major, major coup. So we're very lucky and we got an opportunity now with this cushion to do the valuable work we do with the kids of Bristol," said Broad Plain Youth Club head Dennis Stinchcombe.
Banksy's "Mobile Lovers" bought by private buyer for £403,000. Money to Bristol boys' club who removed it from wall. pic.twitter.com/qd2DYK2muF
Advertisement— Jon Kay (@jonkay01) August 27, 2014Read More
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