The owner of a Bristol home where a new Banksy mural has appeared have pulled out of the the sale at the 11th hour after it emerged the property could now be worth £5million.
Aileen Makin, 57, owns the £300,000 property which could now see its value skyrocket because of the artwork.
She was due to exchange contracts next week, but decided against the move after the street artist confirmed the work painted on the side of her home was his, ITV reports.
A Banksy expert estimates the artwork could add up to £5million in value to the blue-painted property.
Aileen Makin, 57, owns the £300,000 Bristol property and has now pulled out of its sale at the 11th hour after a Banksy artwork appeared on the side of her home on Thursday, which could now see its value skyrocket
The piece, entitled ‘Aachoo!!’, was first discovered on the external wall of the semi-detached property on Thursday morning
‘The ‘Aachoo!!’ artwork appeared overnight on the side of Aileen’s Park Street house which sits alongside Vale Street in Totterdown on December 10.
The street in Bristol, the suspected hometown of the anonymous street artist, is believed to be the steepest street in England.
The image appears to show a pensioner whose sneeze is knocking over buildings, an effect created by spraying it on the side of the house.
The piece was first discovered on the external wall of Aileen’s semi-detached property on Thursday morning.
Joe Syer, the founder of MyArtBroker, said: ‘Street art pieces are not sold with authentication by Pest Control – Banksy’s authentication body, however with the right provenance in place we’d estimate this to be worth in the region of 3-5 million pounds.
Aileen’s £300,000 property could see its value skyrocket as Banksy’s work often sell for millions
The family have now put perspex over the artwork, which shows a pensioner’s dentures flying out as she sneezes, to protect it
Aileen’s son Nick Makin (pictured) confirmed he would be speaking to security firms today about how to keep it safe and what to do now
Aileen’s son Nick Makin told ITV Westcountry people had begun climbing over the house while he slept last night, to get the best look at the new work.
He said the family had now put perspex over the artwork to protect it, and confirmed he would be speaking to security firms today about how to keep it safe and what to do now.
He added that his mother is quite distressed by all the attention and they will take time to consider what to do next.
The comic artwork shows a woman wearing a headscarf and holding a handkerchief, bending over while sneezing – with the force causing her to release her walking stick and handbag.
Her dentures are shown shooting out of her mouth.
In an image released by Banksy, the woman’s sneeze appears to have knocked over a wheelie bin at the next-door property, while a man holding an umbrella is being blown backwards.
Banksy confirmed on his website and Instagram page on Thursday afternoon that the piece is his work.
It shows a woman wearing a headscarf and holding a handkerchief, bending over while sneezing – with the force causing her to release her walking stick and handbag
Vale Street is said to be the steepest in England, with its 22-degree gradient put to use during annual Easter Sunday egg-rolling competitions.
Fred Loosmore, 28, a furniture maker who rented a room in the house until recently, said: ‘When we lived here so many people would come, especially on bikes and stuff because they were trying to do the challenge up the hills. It’s a great spot.
‘The artwork is so nice. It’s so relevant, isn’t it?’
Banksy was busy during lockdown: The ‘Aachoo!’ mural is not the artist’s first piece with a subtle nod to coronavirus to appear this year
Banksy took to Instagram to share a series of images which showed his bathroom covered in his infamous rat sketches
The Bristol ‘Aachoo!’ mural is not the first artwork from Banksy this year.
The elusive street artist kept himself busy during lockdown.
The last six months has seen a number of his trademark tongue-in-cheek artworks pop up across the UK – and many of them made a nod to Covid.
In April, in the peak of the first national lockdown, he posted an Instagram snap of a version of his famous rat designs getting up to no good in a bathroom.
The comical scene showed the rodents knocking the bathroom mirror to one side, hanging on the light pull, swinging on a towel ring and stepping on a tube of toothpaste.
The anonymous artist captioned the picture: ‘My wife hates it when I work from home’.
Banksy’s creation, ‘Game Changer’, appeared at Southampton general hospital and paid tribute to the brave NHS frontline staff fighting the coronavirus pandemic
A month later a new artwork appeared at Southampton general hospital paying tribute to NHS staff during the coronavirus pandemic.
Titled ‘Game Changer,’ the monochrome painting depicted a young boy playing with a toy nurse over other superhero figurines Batman and Spiderman.
Banksy’s world famous Girl With a Pierced Eardrum painting was also given a coronavirus twist in April when a blue surgical mask was added to the mural.
Although it is not known if this was the artist’s own doing.