Banksy stencil soars past Hay Wain as UK’s favourite work of art
I would quite like to be Banksy – his subversive anonymity appeals to me and I think we can claim this is a rural story as it mentions the Hay Wain. It tells us…
An image of a little girl sadly watching her heart-shaped red balloon drift away, originally a stencil on a grimy wall by Banksy, has toppled Constable’s Hay Wain as the nation’s best-loved work of art.
The most famous version of Girl with Balloon, by the Bristol-born street artist, appeared on the side of a bridge on the South Bank in London in 2002. It is now ubiquitous, available as prints, greeting cards and mugs, as an instant street artist kit in a precut stencil marketed by a firm in the US, and as a recent addition to the impressive collection of tattoos almost covering the skin of pop star Justin Bieber.
Another version in the East End was among several Banksys which sparked outrage when the new owners of the building proposed to peel it off the wall and send it to auction. A miniature version, painted on the cardboard backing of a cheap picture frame, sold in 2012 for more than £73,000.