A red K6 phone box, cut off at an angle with pieces of road stone around the base, entitled 'Submerged Phone Booth' was exhibited this month as part of Phillips opening celebrations of its new London base and sold at auction last Tuesday for £722,500 including premiums.
 
This piece of sculpture was not what could be called meaningful or attractive. It was made in 2006, and sold at Phillips New York in March 2008 with a different title 'British Phone Booth' and nicer broken road stone, estimated at $100k-$200k and sold for $121,000 to the late Gordon Locksley.
 
Phillips catalogue essay: 'A world-renowned artist, Banksy uses the medium of street art to draw attention to aspects of politics and society often left unpublished in the mainstream media. His graffiti works provide a voice for urban environments and, in their artistic quality, lean towards aesthetic improvement rather than simple vandalism. Banksy is well known for his installation artwork, which covers similar topics to those characteristic of his two-dimensional works, focusing on anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-establishment ideals. In the combination of dark humour and light-hearted comedy, his often satirical art forms a distinctive method of political and social commentary.
 
Submerged Phone Booth, carried out in 2006, features a replica of the classically British Telecommunications phone booth. The booth in question is depicted as emerging from a cement pavement, fragmenting and splitting the surface in its endeavour. As integral to his oeuvre, in this piece Banksy questions contemporary society and events that otherwise remain overlooked or tactfully ignored.
 
Made available in the early 1900s, shortly after the success of the recently invented telephone, the telephone booth first appeared in London near railway stations. The boxes provided instant communication for travellers and city-dwellers, serving the needs of the masses. Phone booths once graced virtually every street corner, public office building and hotel, and became a part of the fabric of the culture. Phone booths are now seen as a symbol of London and British culture and serve more as a tourist-attraction for travellers than for any practical value. Yet the iconic constructions are beginning to disappear, falling subject to virtual and technological progression.
 
Submerged Phone Booth thus serves as a statement on the demise of what had once been an iconic presence in art, entertainment and society; renowned and quintessentially British, references ranging from Superman to The Beatles to Alfred Hitchcock, have strong associations with the object …
 
Banksy's Submerged Phone Booth can thus be seen as a protest against the anonymity of modern society. The artist, despite remaining unidentified by the public as an individual, is widely acclaimed as a creator and takes ownership for and identifies himself in all his works. Banksy states: 'people are taking the piss out of you everyday…They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it… You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, rearrange and reuse. You can do whatever you like with it.' (Banksy, Brandalism, Cut it Out,2004)
 
… The once, merely practical object now gains a metaphoric, aesthetic and psychological power. Depicted with only the upper half visible above ground level, the phone booth is not displayed in its full state. The effect created by the fragmented surrounding cement alludes to the sense of crashing movement, in particular the booth rising up from underground … As integral to Banksy's oeuvre, the artist manipulates a classic British trope in an innovative and inventive way to highlight a political and somewhat humorous message … Banksy appropriates tradition and custom and injects it with a contemporary and revolutionary artistic contribution.
 
Submerged Phone Booth was displayed at the much anticipated 'Barely Legal' LA appearance of Banksy's work in September 2006. The exhibition was intended to draw attention to the legal aspects of graffiti art and was billed as a 'three-day vandalised warehouse extravaganza' … Like Andy Warhol before him, Banksy has managed to redefine the definition of art and open a new, contemporary approach to a wider audience …
 
Submerged Phone Booth not only signifies the demise of past communication mechanisms in a modern, dynamic world of communication, but also reconstructs its purpose on an elevated level, restoring its power in its new form as a ground-breaking piece of art …
 
Submerged Phone Booth is dramatic, provocative and stimulating, yet retains a sense of the indecisive that renders it particularly poignant and affecting.'
 
It is not true to assert that 'The once, merely practical object now gains a metaphoric, aesthetic and psychological power.' K6 phone boxes already had this power, thanks to those who chose Giles Gilbert Scott's design, and Soane before him, which is why this phone box is so loved by British people, and recognised globally as an icon. Banksy's work seems more of a K6 footnote.
 
In February 2008 a piece entitled 'Vandalised Phone Box' of a cut and shut mitred phone box with an embedded pickaxe and bleeding red paint, but with a less pleasant inclined angle, entitled 'Vandalised Phone Box' and made in 2005, estimated at $200k-$300k went on to sell for $605k at a New York HIV charity auction.
 
Gordon Locksley, a dealer collector, said he did not have much money but he would never buy a piece of art which he did not believe in, he could not afford to make mistakes. He collected work by young artists who brought something new to the vocabulary of art but in general he did not fall in love with art at first sight but had to think about things for a long time. He was not an investment collector but collected art because he liked it. Art changes your life forever, he said.