Banksy

£40,000-£60,000 VALUE (EST.)

$70,000-$100,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥330,000-¥500,000 VALUE (EST.)

€45,000-€70,000 VALUE (EST.)

$390,000-$580,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥6,420,000-¥9,620,000 VALUE (EST.)

$50,000-$70,000 VALUE (EST.)

This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

Auction Date

Auction House

Artwork

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

March 2021

Sotheby's Online - United Kingdom

Toxic Mary (AP pink) - Signed Print

Meaning & Analysis

Virgin Mary often just shortened to Toxic Mary, is an early artwork by street artist Banksy that was produced as an signed screen print edition of 44 in 2003.

read more about Toxic Mary

Toxic Mary was first shown to the public in Banksy's 2003 London exhibition, Turf Wars. It shows the Virgin Mary feeding her infant son, Jesus Christ against a hot pink backdrop. It is a striking, bold and controversial piece considered blasphemous by many in religious circles. Art fans and Banksy collectors simply took the dark humoured piece at face value, speculating that what Banksy is actually commenting on is the relationship between mother and child. However, there is no doubt that we one can also read some of Banksy's own religious views into this rather shocking piece. He could be saying that extreme religiousness and bigotry can, in fact, be poisonous, and that poison can be passed down through generations, and spread through families and communities. The only other obvious religious piece by Banksy is Christ With Shopping Bags, which uses religious iconography to comment on the way we worship capitalism and consumerism.