If you happen to have a couple hundred grand just lying around and were thinking of treating yourself to a nice supercar, how about we interest you in just the door of a car? It's not even from a supercar, but it's still a very much coveted collectible.
This is the car door from the car in the 2013 installation Crazy Horse, which guerrilla artist Banksy created in 2013 during his month-long residency in New York, which he called Better Out Than In. At the time, it was his most political work to date, and it remains, to this day, a powerful commentary on war, journalistic responsibility, and civil disobedience.
Crazy Horse wasn't just a mural like Banksy was fond of doing at the time. It combined a mural and a seemingly abandoned sedan painted over in aerosol, traffic cones, and carefully placed barrels, creating a work of unprecedented depth. Crazy Horse was an installation inspired by – and named after – the Apache helicopter called Crazy Horse 18, which, in 2007, took part in an airstrike that resulted in civilian fatalities, including children.
Audio from the airstrike was leaked in 2010 by Wikileaks under the name Collateral Murder, and Bansky linked his installation to it via a toll-free phone number written on the barrels. The installation depicted, with much violence and great depth, horses wearing night-vision goggles stampeding on terror-stricken civilians.
Photo: Instagram/Banksy
No word on what happened to the full installation, which, at the time, was sitting behind a padlocked fence in the Lower East Side, but at least the door of the car has survived. For the second time in many years, it's coming up for auction, with a starting price of $25,000 and an estimate between $100,000 and $200,000.
The car door is selling with one of the traffic cones that were part of the original installation and a custom-made support that holds it in place. In other words, it's ready to go up on display as soon as the check goes through.
The auction will take place in Beverly Hills on February 15, 2024, but bidding is already underway online. As a side note, the first time the door came up for sale a few years ago, it failed to secure a buyer because reserve wasn't met.
Banksy's works remain priced very high, so $200K for a car door is affordable by comparison. Not by comparison to an actual functional car with all four (or two) doors, four wheels, and an engine that goes vroom! but by comparison to his other works that survived. If you recall the 2019 banana taped to the wall that sold for $120,000, this Banksy work is cheap – and more charged with meaning.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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