‘Babel Series #10’, a work made from posters pasted onto each other - a technique much used by the artist - and in which he carved the shape of tears that, together, form a human eye, had been valued at between £6,000 and £8,000.
Vhils, whose real name is Alexandre Farto, was one of nine urban artists who offered works to be auctioned in London to raise funds for an initiative by the Movember Foundation in the field of men’s mental health and suicide prevention.
The same auction, held on Tuesday at Sotheby’s, saw the sale for £20,000 of a work by Joana Vasconcelos, another artist from Portugal, called ‘Caleidoscope’, which combines traditional ‘azulejo’ tiles from the Viúva Lamego factory with crochet work. It had been valued at £10,000 to £15,000.
The auction raised a total of £1,888,000, but a parallel internet auction that is also part of the initiative ends only on Wednesday.