Guy Hepner Gallery

Banksy Mona Lisa with AK-47 For Sale

Banksy
Banksy - Mona Lisa with AK-47, 2000, Spray-paint stencil on board

Mona Lisa with AK-47, 2000

Spray-paint stencil on board

48 x 48 in | 122 x 122 cm

About this work

Mona Lisa with AK-47 Banksy Banksy remains the most influential street artist of his generation, commanding unprecedented prices at auction while maintaining anonymity and a pointed critique of institutional power structures. His works have achieved record-breaking results at major auction houses, with pieces regularly surpassing estimates by significant margins. The artist's ability to operate simultaneously within and against the art market has cemented his position as a cultural phenomenon whose influence extends far beyond the gallery walls. Mona Lisa with AK-47 exemplifies Banksy's signature approach of subverting canonical imagery to deliver sharp social commentary. The work appropriates Leonardo da Vinci's celebrated portrait, arguably the most recognizable painting in Western art history, and disrupts its serene composition by arming the figure with an assault rifle. Executed in spray-paint stencil on board, the piece demonstrates the artist's technical precision and graphic clarity. The stark contrast between high Renaissance portraiture and contemporary weaponry creates an immediate visual tension, questioning notions of cultural sanctity, violence, and the commodification of art itself. The monochromatic palette, characteristic of Banksy's early output, lends the work a raw urgency that underscores its confrontational message. Created in 2000, this work originates from a pivotal period in the artist's development, predating his widespread international recognition. As a unique piece rather than an editioned print, it holds particular significance within his body of work, offering collectors a rare opportunity to acquire an original early Banksy of substantial scale. For acquisition inquiries regarding this work, please contact Guy Hepner directly.

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Edition & Provenance

Year
2000
Medium
Spray-paint stencil on board
Edition
Unique
Mona Lisa with AK-47

About Banksy

Banksy prints for sale at Guy Hepner include authenticated signed and unsigned editions: Girl with Balloon, Choose Your Weapon, Tesco Soup Cans, Fragile, Laugh Now, and Flower Thrower. Buy Banksy prints in New York through our gallery at 177 Tenth Avenue — all works sourced with full provenance and authentication documentation. We also buy Banksy art and offer free valuations for sellers.

Banksy is the world’s most celebrated anonymous street artist — a figure whose identity remains unknown but whose visual language is instantly recognisable across continents. Emerging from the Bristol graffiti scene in the early 1990s, Banksy developed a stencil-based technique that allowed rapid, precise execution on walls, bridges, and public surfaces from London and New York to Gaza and the West Bank. His work fuses dark humour, political provocation, and formal rigour in a way that has made him equally at home on the street and in the auction room. Today, Banksy art for sale represents one of the most dynamic and hotly contested segments of the contemporary secondary market.

Banksy Art For Sale

Banksy art for sale encompasses original spray-painted canvases, unique works on board, signed and unsigned print editions, and — on rare occasions — documented wall works sold with photographic authentication. The breadth of subjects he has addressed is remarkable: consumer capitalism (Tesco Soup Cans, Trolley Hunters), celebrity culture (Kate Moss, Andy Warhol), surveillance and control (Radar Rat, CCTV Watching), and hope and fragility (Girl with Balloon, Fragile).

The benchmark auction event in Banksy’s market history remains the October 2018 Sotheby’s London sale, when Girl with Balloon — having just sold for £1.04 million — was partially shredded by a device concealed in the frame, becoming Love is in the Bin. The reconstituted work subsequently sold in October 2021 for £18.5 million, underscoring the extraordinary commercial power of Banksy’s interventions and the appetite of the global collector base for his most iconic imagery.

Banksy Paintings For Sale

Banksy paintings for sale — unique spray-painted works on canvas or board — are the rarest and most valuable category of his output. These works, typically produced in small numbers for specific shows or commissions, carry full documentation from Pest Control and have appeared at auction with results ranging from six to eight figures. Choose Your Weapon, Monkey Parliament, and large-format stencil canvases from his early 2000s output represent the apex of private collector demand.

Provenance is paramount for Banksy paintings. Unbroken ownership history from first sale through to the present day, combined with a current Pest Control certificate, is the minimum standard for any serious acquisition. Works without this documentation carry substantial authentication risk regardless of visual appearance.

Banksy Prints: Signed vs Unsigned

Banksy print editions form the most accessible and widely traded category of his market. Published through his own distribution channels and in very limited numbers, these screenprints exist in signed and unsigned variants — a distinction that has a significant impact on value. Signed editions — with Banksy’s hand signature — command multiples of two to five times comparable unsigned editions in the same print run.

Key print series sought by collectors include: Girl with Balloon (multiple colourways), Choose Your Weapon, Kate Moss, Tesco Soup Cans, Fragile, Radar Rat, Flower Thrower, and Di-Faced Tenners. Edition sizes vary from as few as 150 to several hundred, and sell-through rates at auction confirm strong secondary demand across all major series.

Banksy Authentication: Pest Control

Pest Control is Banksy’s official authentication body and the only organisation authorised to certify works as genuine. When you buy Banksy prints or original art, a current Pest Control Certificate of Authenticity (COA) is the non-negotiable standard. The COA features a torn currency note — half retained by Pest Control, half with the work — as a security measure, and is registered against a specific edition and owner.

At Guy Hepner Gallery, every Banksy work offered for sale is accompanied by Pest Control documentation. We do not offer works without verified authentication, and our team is available to guide collectors through the acquisition process, including condition reporting, framing recommendations, and insurance valuation.

Ready to buy Banksy art? Contact Guy Hepner to explore our current inventory of authenticated Banksy prints and original works.

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