Which Banksy artwork sold at auction for $1.87 million in 2008?

Banksy’s Keep It Spotless sold at auction for $1.87 million in 2008.

Keep It Spotless was based on a Damien Hirst-style spot painting and incorporated Banksy’s intervention: a cleaner figure appears to be wiping part of the artwork. The combination of an existing art-market format and Banksy’s political, anti-establishment image made the work especially notable.

The painting was sold by Sotheby’s in New York in February 2008. Its result was widely reported as a major auction record for Banksy at the time, showing that his work could command extremely high prices within the same commercial art system it often mocks.

The work is sometimes confused with Banksy’s later auction milestones, including Devolved Parliament and Love is in the Bin. Those works achieved different prices and belong to separate moments in his auction history.